This is the generation that can help end HIV transmissions – and must not fail – health secretary Wes Streeting has said.

Streeting, who sat on the 2020 HIV Commission, was speaking at a reception held jointly by the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and LGBT+ Labour, during the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this week.

The reception focused on how the government can work to end new transmissions by 2030.

“I am proud that at such an early stage [Labour] have been able to show how serious we are about this agenda on sexual health,” Streeting said, referring to the more than 150,000 Mpox vaccines the government has secured as cases around the world rise in a new outbreak.

The government is going to “walk the walk on prevention”, he added.

“We are in a position to make a real difference, a historic difference… the chance to stop a virus, without a cure and without a vaccine. Never before done in the history of the world and we will do it on HIV.”

Streeting went on to say he realised it wasn’t going to be easy and admitted that the country is currently not on track to end HIV transmissions.

“The goal of ending this epidemic, and being the first country in the world to do so, falls to our generation and we cannot fail. We’ve inherited a health system that is broken, sexual health services are under immense strain, there are months-long waiting list to get PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] and 14,000 people living with diagnosed HIV not accessing care.

“Our new HIV action plan will… get us back on track. I want it to be the first great example of how we can make the move from sickness to prevention.

“We will stop treating PrEP like it is a specialist medication that is only for gay people and can only be accessed through specialist clinics. We will make sure that HIV testing becomes routine at our health service and take inspiration [the] opt-out approach in A&Es in other services and for other conditions, and we will take action on this quiet crisis of people who are diagnosed with HIV but are not accessing life-saving treatment, including tackling the stigma, discrimination and inequalities that hold people back from getting care.”

In July, a UNAIDS report revealed that while some countries are on track to end new transmissions, other nations are falling short, with a lack of funding, discriminatory laws and stigma stalling success on prevention. 

The report highlighted that the number of people diagnosed with HIV in 2023 was lower than at any point since the late 1980s and that more than 31 million people are receiving antiretroviral therapy. However, it also noted that some key demographics are still not being reached by prevention services while criminalising laws and funding gaps are slowing progress in some nations.

Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, said at the time that ending HIV was a “political and financial choice” and the cost of failure was “exponentially higher than the cost of ending it”.

She went on to say: “Leaders’ actions now will determine if we succeed in ending Aids by 2030, or fall short. We must tackle discrimination and stigma pushing marginalised people away from healthcare.

“Leaders who choose this path will prevent millions of new infections, save millions of lives, ensure healthy lives for those living with HIV, and keep everyone safe.”

During the reception, there were also speeches from MPs Danny Beales and Florence Eshalomi, as well as LGBT+ Labour co-chairman Joe Dharampal-Hornby, and the chief executives of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, Kat Smithson, and of THT, Richard Angell.

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