Just over a year ago in July 2023, the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care at the time – Eluned Morgan MS – published the HIV Action Plan for Wales, setting out a framework for how the nation can achieve its goal of ending new transmissions of HIV by 2030. This was a pivotal moment in Wales’s journey to 2030 and highlighted the determination of the Welsh Government to making this goal a reality.
A year later, Eluned Morgan has been elected First Minister of Wales and joining her in government as her new Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is the former-First Minister who initiated the HIV Action Plan, Mark Drakeford MS.
Wales has long led the way in its response to the HIV epidemic. It was the first UK nation to pledge to end new cases of HIV by 2030, with Vaughan Gething MS, Health Minister at the time, making the announcement at a Terrence Higgins Trust Cymru event in November 2018. England followed suit in January 2019 and Scotland in December 2020. And, in 2017, Wales became one of the first countries in the world to make the HIV prevention drug PrEP free through the NHS, contributing to a 52% decrease in new HIV diagnoses between 2017 and 2021 (caveated due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
With a new First Minister and Health Secretary, this ambitious approach to tackling HIV transmission and ending HIV stigma can be renewed. There are two years left in the lifespan of the current HIV Action Plan for Wales and, while welcome progress has been made, further action is required if we are to achieve our 2030 goal. Key to this is the sustainable funding of vital services that assist in supporting people living with HIV to stay in care.
When, then-Health Secretary, Eluned Morgan MS published the HIV Action Plan for Wales in 2023, she remarked that Wales was “at the beginning of an exciting journey which can achieve real change”. The publication of Wales’s Action Plan means that this change is now within our grasp, but we can’t stop now if we are going to make ending new transmission of HIV a reality. We won’t meet this target if we don’t accelerate our efforts now to find and support everyone living with HIV.
We were honoured to have contributed to the Action Plan’s development and look forward to a continued partnership with the Welsh Government as we drive forward progress to 2030.
Together, we can deliver the change that the First Minister spoke of and end new cases of HIV in Wales once and for all.
