HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom

[1] New diagnoses are highest in gay/bisexual men, with an estimated 51% of new diagnosis reporting male same-sex sexual activity as the probable route of infection.

[15][9][16] In 2015, less than 1% of people living with a diagnosed HIV infection in the UK died (cause of death is uncertain and may not be HIV-related).

[citation needed] Access to pre-exposure prophylaxis ("PrEP"), using a drug which can prevent HIV infection, on the National Health Service is partially limited.

[21][22][23] In Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland PrEP is available free on the NHS from sexual health clinics for those deemed at high risk of acquisition.

[1] Sexual health specialist Mags Portman was credited in making PrEP more accessible to gay and bisexual men in the UK.

[26] 1981, 12 December: The Lancet publishes a case report of a 49-year-old man who had died in Brompton hospital due to an AIDS related illness in October - the first death in the UK.

[30] Painstaking work from the ITV Tonight team matched a death certificate from 1981, which included the same details revealed in the Lancet - a 49 year old man, dying in the Royal Brompton Hospital of Pneumocystis Pneumonia.

It includes interviews with Linda Laubenstein, Alvin Friedman-Kien, James W. Curran, Michael S. Gottlieb and Bobbi Campbell.

1985: 58 AIDS-related deaths had been recorded in Britain,[34] according to the current affairs series TV Eye, broadcast in 1985.

In October, a man with AIDS is detained under the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1985, marking their first and only use.

[36][37][38] 1987: The UK Government launched "AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance", a major public information campaign.

[50] 2015, 9 September: Results announced of PROUD study, testing the effectiveness of PrEP on reducing HIV infections in 544 participants.

[57] 2021, 1 December: the UK Ministry of Defence announces a commitment to ensuring being HIV+ no longer excludes anyone from joining the armed forces.

Any candidates taking PrEP would be welcomed and serving armed forces personnel with HIV are recognised as fully fit.