UK slashes HIV prevention cash by half

GAYSTARNEWS
Dean Morgan
Original Article:  bit.ly/1MGCJZo

A 50% cut in HIV prevention funding could have grave consequences, the UK’s National AIDS Trust (NAT) has warned today.

The funding for HIV Prevention England (HPE) has been halved from £2.4 million ($3.5 million €3.4 million) to £1.2 million ($1.8 million €1.7 million).

NAT CEO Deborah Gold said today (13 March): ‘We are deeply concerned about the level of upheaval to HIV prevention provision across the country.
‘Important enabling infrastructure will be significantly compromised by the gap in funding.’ 

The British Parliament yesterday announced (12 March) £800,000 ($1.2 million €1.1 million) is being invested into a new Innovation Fund to tackle HIV

But Gold warns that is not enough: ‘The new Innovation Fund may help to plug the gap but will not be issuing grants until well after the current program comes to an end this month.’

In the last 12 months, only £15 million was spent across the UK on HIV prevention, dwarfed by the £55 million which was spent in the years 2001/02 and the £37 million in 2007-8.

Full text of article available at link below:  bit.ly/1MGCJZo