Only six weeks ago, we wrote to Terrence Higgins Trust supporters with an urgent message: we need your help to make the first days of a new government count for our cause. We’ve been busy since. Hundreds of new MPs have entered Parliament and it’s our mission to make sure they are fully briefed and behind our mission to end new HIV cases by 2030 and ensuring everyone living with HIV can live well.
That’s why last week, with our friends at the APPG for HIV and AIDS and National AIDS Trust, we held a briefing event in parliament. More than 40 MPs – new and returning, from England, Scotland and Wales – joined us. They are the generation of parliamentarians that have the opportunity to be part of a historic first: ending the onwards transmission of a virus without a vaccine or a cure.
Reaching that goal is currently possible but not probable. In England, we are not on track to meet the UK Government’s midway target of an 80% reduction in new transmissions in England by 2025. The HIV Action Plan for England soon expires and so does the funding for the hugely successful opt-out HIV testing taking place in A&Es. Up to 14,000 people who have been diagnosed with HIV are not accessing vital care and the game-changing pill PrEP is only available in sexual health services. We talked to new MPs from across the country about what will be needed to turn this around.
In Scotland, every day we are also missing opportunities to get people on PrEP, diagnose people and re-engage those not accessing HIV care. We need an urgent extension of opt-out HIV testing pilots and an expansion to areas with the highest HIV prevalence, alongside a National HIV Testing Week for Scotland. We had positive conversations with new MPs from Edinburgh and Glasgow about our campaigning to make this happen.
And to get to zero by 2030, the Welsh Government will need to turbo-charge the delivery of the Welsh HIV Action Plan during the last two years of its lifespan. Sustaining funding for support services that can help people living with HIV to stay in care will be crucial. It was great to speak to new Welsh MPs about this – and we hope to work with the new First Minister and the new Health Secretary to make that a reality.
These conversations are only the beginning. Your support allowed us to take these first step in meeting and briefing MPs. Now we need to turn that into action. So whether it’s donating to support our work or sharing your thoughts on a new HIV Action Plan, we need your help. Together, let’s end new HIV cases once and for all.
