Jeremy Miles MS has been appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and, therefore, takes on responsibility for the delivery of Wales’s HIV Action Plan and overseeing the nation’s route to tackling stigma and ending new transmission of HIV by 2030.
Miles joined the then First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, to launch the draft HIV Action Plan at an event marking the 40th anniversary of the passing of Welshman Terry Higgins, our namesake and the first named person to die of an AIDS-related illness in the UK. Miles unveiled a very special portrait of Higgins that now lives in St. Fagans National Museum of History.
Published in autumn 2022, Wales’s final HIV Action Plan – amended from the original 26 actions to 30 – set out a bold framework for how Wales can end new cases of HIV by 2030 and tackle HIV-related stigma. A pivotal moment in Wales’s HIV journey, this Action Plan built on Wales’s already world-leading response to the HIV epidemic. We were honoured to have contributed to the Action Plan’s development and welcomed commitments from the Welsh Government to establish Fast Track Cymru, develop a nationwide sexual health case management and surveillance system and fund a National HIV Testing Week for Wales, alongside other welcome actions.
Alongside Wales’s new First Minister – Eluned Morgan MS – who, as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, published the HIV Action Plan in 2022, Miles has the opportunity to continue to Wales’s streak as a trailblazer in its HIV response and must use his appointment as an opportunity to renew Wales’s commitment to ending new cases of HIV by 2030.
The publication of the Action Plan and the ongoing delivery of its actions are welcome progress, however, further action is needed if we are to end new cases of HIV by 2030 and tackle HIV-related stigma. There are two years left in the lifespan of the current HIV Action Plan for Wales and the Welsh Government must now capitalise on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a global leader in public health and HIV prevention. This means sustainable funding must be made in vital HIV services that assist in supporting people living with HIV to live healthily.
In his keynote speech at our 40th anniversary event in 2022, the now-Health Secretary remarked that the HIV epidemic ‘was about more than news stories and numbers’ and that – at its core – it was about people: ‘people with lives, with loves, with histories and with hopes’. As we approach 2030, we look forward to working with the Welsh Government to embed the experiences of people living with HIV into Wales’s HIV response and end new cases of HIV in Wales once and for all.
