House of Lords Committee on HIV & AIDS calls for prevention prioritization

As encouraging results from recent PrEP and microbicide studies revolutionize the HIV/AIDS prevention landscape, the House of Lords Select Committee on HIV & AIDS in the UK has called for greater emphasis and funding toward prevention. The UK government spends up to £750 million each year on treatment, but less that £3 million on prevention campaigns. The committee reports that current efforts to fight the epidemic are “woefully inadequate” and that this failure can have “potentially huge cost implications”.

“I know these are difficult times, but if you were to try to find one good investment, it would be to spend more on prevention, because that investment prevents the treatment costs … Prevention must be the key policy,” says Lord Fowler, chairman of the committee. (Incidentally, Lord Fowler was Health Secretary back in 1986, when he led the Don’t Die of Ignorance campaign on AIDS.)

The committee recommends a new national HIV campaign; failing that, it advises the prioritization of prevention messaging – especially testing. Additionally, it also highlights the need for greater funding for prevention efforts targeting gay men and Africans.

In a significant move for those working on new prevention technologies, the committee recommends that research into the use of PrEP to prevent infection in HIV-negative people needs to be a funding priority for the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council.

To read aidsmap’s detailed story on this development, click here.

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