News

London is already the world-leading city for HIV diagnosis and treatment, with 95 per cent of people with HIV diagnosed, 98 per cent of whom are on treatment and 97 per cent of those with the HIV virus suppressed.

This week London is launching a new collaboration with partnership projects to the value of £1 million. This will support London’s ambition to become the first city in the world to stop new HIV infections and make preventable deaths from HIV a thing of the past.

The funding from NHS England and NHS Improvement London will allow more HIV testing, ensure more people with HIV stay on treatment and support more people with HIV to live well.

This is an exciting new three-year commitment to an innovative collaboration across 22 not for profit organisations and nine NHS Trusts, working together as an improvement community to deliver 12 projects. The projects will be tailored to meet the needs of particularly vulnerable or complex groups including people who experiencing homelessness, people struggling with loneliness or social isolation, migrants, people with substance misuse issues, older women who are living with HIV and people from black and minority ethnic populations.

Sir David Sloman, Regional Director for the NHS in London, said:

“London is proud of its record in diagnosing and treating people with HIV, with just 5 per cent of Londoners with HIV undiagnosed. This funding is part of £6 million of NHS funding over the next three years that will help us to do more, getting our Capital faster and further towards achieving zero new HIV infections, zero preventable deaths and zero stigma.

“With more people in our city living with HIV than anywhere else in the country we are also committing to supporting those with HIV to live and age well; an important step towards making London the healthiest global city.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

“I’m proud that London is leading the way in tackling HIV and is on course to be the first city to prevent new infections.

“We’re committed to ending the transmission of HIV by 2030 and tackling the stigma associated with it, and we continue to share our progress with other cities across the world through the Fast-Track Cities partnership. I’m pleased that this new funding will help to extend our work and I will continue to push for Londoners to be able to access the prevention, treatment and support they need.”

Professor Jane Anderson, Co-Chair Fast-Track Cities London, Consultant Physician and Director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV, Homerton University Hospital, said:

“HIV remains an important problem in London, with the infection impacting on Londoners more than any other part of the UK, particularly among some of the most vulnerable communities.

“The work, over many years, of the HIV community, professional clinical teams, the voluntary sector, local authorities and the NHS has made London a world leader in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Yet with our aim to end new HIV infections in London, it becomes more critical that we focus on the needs of the most vulnerable, including those who are socially excluded or economically disadvantaged. It means doing things differently, working in innovative partnerships with the voluntary sector, and strengthening our outreach programmes to better test, treat and care for those in need. The 12 new projects will provide new insights into how to do this best and invaluable lessons for the whole of London and beyond.”

Garry Brough, community representative for Fast-Track Cities London, said:

“Having grown up with the fear of HIV and lived with the virus for nearly 30 years, it is thrilling to be so close to achieving zero HIV-related stigma, transmissions and deaths in London. The commitment from all the key partners in the Fast-Track Cities initiative is crucial in getting us to zero and the work we are all doing will help us discover and demonstrate exactly how to get there for London, as well as share this with the rest of the UK and cities across the world.”

This past year Fast-Track Cities has secured £6 million from the NHS for the next three years, which includes £1 million each year for the improvement fund and funding to progress other key steps such as tackling HIV-related stigma.

London boroughs play a key role in tackling HIV as part of their public health duties. Since 2014, boroughs have collaborated through their highly successful London HIV Prevention Programme, delivered by GMI Partnership, which provides HIV testing and condom distribution across the capital, as well as the award-winning Do It London HIV prevention awareness campaign.

London has also formed a network with other UK cities, which are part of the Fast-Track Cities initiative, to begin to look at how we work together to end HIV across the whole of the UK.

In September 2019 London was chosen to host the first Fast-Track Cities global HIV conference, which brought together more than 700 political and city leaders from 220 cities around the world to share expertise on meeting the United Nation’s AIDS targets and ending HIV by 2030.