Introduction to HIV prevention

 How can HIV transmission be prevented?

HIV can be transmitted in three main ways:

• Sexual transmission
• Transmission through blood
• Mother-to-child transmission

For each route of transmission there are things that an individual can do to reduce or eliminate risk. There are also interventions that have been proven to work at the community, local and national level.¹
Wherever there is HIV, all three routes of transmission will take place. However the number of infections resulting from each route will vary greatly between countries and population groups. The share of resources allocated to each area should reflect the nature of the local epidemic - for example, if most infections occur among men who have sex with men then this group should be a primary target for prevention efforts.

"Knowing your epidemic in a particular region or country is the first, essential step in identifying, selecting and funding the most appropriate and effective HIV prevention measures for that country or region." - UNAIDS guidelines for HIV prevention ²

HIV prevention should be comprehensive, making use of all approaches known to be effective rather than just implementing one or a few select actions in isolation. Successful HIV prevention programmes not only give information, but also build skills and provide access to essential commodities such as condoms or sterile injecting equipment. It should be remembered that many people don’t fit into only one “risk category”. For example, injecting drug users need access to condoms and safer sex counselling as well as support to reduce the risk of transmission through blood.

HIV & AIDS treatment in the UK

Since anti-HIV treatment has been available in the UK, it has had a profound impact upon the lives of those living with HIV and AIDS. The number of people dying from AIDS has dramatically decreased and HIV is now generally thought of as a chronic disease. However, despite the introduction of free antiretroviral treatment, there are still people dying from AIDS-related illnesses in the UK. Around a third of these AIDS-related deaths occur because people are being diagnosed too late, at a stage when antiretroviral treatment is less likely to work.¹ There is the additional risk that HIV may become resistant to the drugs if treatment is not adhered to.
Issues that will be discussed in this page include:

• When HAART was introduced in the UK
• How many people are receiving treatment and care for HIV in the UK
• Who is able to receive free treatment and care for HIV/AIDS in the UK
• Treatment for HIV positive pregnant women in the UK
• How to access treatment in the UK
• The cost of antiretroviral treatment in the UK
• 'Health tourism'
• Why people still die from AIDS in the UK

For more information on antiretroviral therapy see our Introduction to HIV and AIDS Treatment in our Treatment and Care section.

HIV & AIDS in the UK

The UK has a relatively small HIV and AIDS epidemic in comparison with some parts of the world, with an estimated 83,000 people – or around 0.1% of the population – currently living with HIV.¹ While the number of people living with HIV in the UK is relatively low, it has increased dramatically since the 1990s, alongside a general rise in the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections.

AIDS & HIV in the UK - the current situation

A poster which was part of the early campaign by the British government to raise awareness of AIDS

HIV and AIDS in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Around 1.5 million people in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia were living with HIV in 2008, 110,000 of whom became infected that year, with 87,000 dying of AIDS.¹ It is estimated that over two-thirds of the area’s infected people live in Russia, and combined with Ukraine, these two countries account for 90% of the region’s total infections. Both countries also have some of the highest adult prevalence rates in the region, with 1.6% of Ukrainians and 1.1% of Russians infected. Significant numbers of people with HIV live in Belarus (13,000), Kazakhstan (12,000) and Uzbekistan (16,000) among other countries, with prevalence rates in Latvia (0.8%) and Estonia (1.3%) also being some of the highest in the region.

Since 2001, HIV prevalence in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia has roughly doubled, making the region home to the world’s most rapidly expanding epidemic. In contrast, over the same period, prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa fell from 5.8% to 5.2%, and stabilised in South and Southeast Asia at 0.3%.²
This page focuses on the 15 former Soviet republics that constitute the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), as well as Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Russia.