United Kingdom: New HIV Cases "Preventable"

In 2009, the HIV prevalence rate in England's North West was 80 diagnosed cases per 100,000 population, according to a new report by the Health Protection Agency North West and the Center for Public Health. Many of the 498 new diagnoses across Greater Manchester in 2009 "were acquired in the UK and would have been preventable," said Dr. Penny Cook, lead author of the report.

High-prevalence areas, nationally defined as more than 200 cases per 100,000 population, include the Manchester local authority (365.6), Salford (229.6), and Blackpool (203.6).

The number of patients seeking HIV treatment and care in the region rose 8 percent from 2008, to 6,238 individuals, the report said. The major modes of infection among new patients were heterosexual sex (48 percent) and sex between men (41 percent). That pattern was mirrored in the Greater Manchester area, with 250 cases tied to heterosexual sex, 202 to sex between men, 10 to mother-to-child transmission, six to injection drug use, and 29 undetermined.

"We must ensure that in this difficult economic time resources continue to be invested in prevention, since targeted health promotion campaigns save the NHS [National Health Service] a substantial amount of money in the long run by preventing infections," said Cook.

"As the NHS is transformed, prevention of sexually transmitted infections must be seen as a priority; otherwise, we risk not just higher levels of HIV but more chlamydia in young people and infections like syphilis," Cook said.

The full report is available online: www.cph.org.uk/showPublication.aspx?pubid=658.

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