Dramatic drop in HIV rates among US prisoners
People who visited the spa are being asked to get tested for blood-borne infections (Getty)
There has been a significant drop in new HIV infections in one area of US public life.
Federal and state run prisons have seen the HIV rates fall dramatically, according to new figures.
The number of both state and federal prisoners with HIV at the end of 2015 was the lowest since 1991.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 17,150 prisoners were HIV-positive at the end of 2015.
Deaths from AIDS related complications are down in state prisons.
There were 73 such deaths recorded in 2010, however in the latest figures for 2015 the number was down to 45.
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In federal prisons, deaths have been less than 10 between 2010 and 2015.
Between men and women, cases dropped 14% and 31% between each respectively from 2010 to 2015 among all prisoners.
The stats follow falls recorded in Europe’s largest sexual health clinic.
London’s 56 Dean Street figures project new HIV infections to have fallen by two thirds since 2015.
The clinic now says zero new HIV infections in a year is a realistic possibility.
Experts are putting the dramatic fall in HIV rates down to HIV-prevention drug PrEP, which will be rolled out to 10,000 people from next month.
The Soho clinic diagnosed 136 people with HIV between January and July, putting it on course for a total of 233 by the end of the year.
If achieved, this would be the second successive fall in excess of 40 per cent, down from 679 in 2015 and 393 last year.
Clinicians are now talking seriously about the possibility of defeating HIV.
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Public Health England figures show that the total number of HIV diagnoses in London has fallen steadily from more than 3,000 in 2006 to 2,603 in 2015.
Men who have sex with men, however, continue to be a high-risk group – accounting for half of all new diagnoses.
