Media captionWhat is Prep?
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After legal argument the High Court has ruled that NHS England is able to provide PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) to prevent HIV infections.
The ruling was a victory for the National Aids Trust (NAT), which brought the case to court.
However, that does not guarantee NHS England will fund the treatment, even if the body accepts the ruling.
He added, that the NHS England had “erred in deciding that it has no power or duty to commission the preventative drugs in issue”.
The Mail said PrEP, which they called a “lifestyle drug”, would lead to “cancer patients being deprived”, “cataract surgeries being rationed”, and quoted the Christian Medical Fellowship who warned of providing drugs to “promiscuous homosexuals”.
“I think the price is something that is going to have to be looked at, I know that I have read that they are saying that it could cost up to £400 per month per person, I think that is for daily Prep”.
“Over 4,000 people are getting HIV every year in the United Kingdom – we desperately need further prevention options to add to condom use”.
He says: “I’ve seen the panic on the face of previous boyfriends when they are awaiting their [HIV test] results – it’s a huge fear and it affects everything you do”.
Meanwhile, a recent French study found that condom use declined to just 24 per cent among men taking Prep. There is still a need to challenge HIV stigma so that men can have more honest and more frequent conversations about actual sexual risk and to ensure that all gay men are informed and empowered to take control of their sexual health.
Commenters called the story an “attack” on gay people and pointed out that PrEP is “no more a lifestyle drug than the contraceptive pill”. The judgement has confirmed our view – that it is perfectly lawful for NHS England to commission PrEP.
NHS England says that because PrEP is preventative, it is not responsible for paying for it. The NAT and other Aids campaigners rightly argue that is low compared with the estimated average of £360,000 over a lifetime for treating somebody with HIV.
NAT chief executive, Deborah Gold, said “This is fantastic news”. Total cost of the treatment-which reduces the risk of infection by more than 90 percent-is $528 a month, the BBC reported. And just maybe this will lead to the naming and shaming of drug companies – holding them responsible for the men at risk of HIV and the children who can not breathe, rather than the NHS. The public consultation will go ahead immediately, and will only be stopped if NHS England wins its appeal, but the treatment won’t be commissioned until the appeal is resolved. Further, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Secretary of State there is a division of labour between NHS England and local authorities with the latter assuming responsibility for preventative medicine in relation to sexually transmitted diseases. In a world where the demands on the NHS are set to increase exponentially, where new and expensive treatments are constantly being developed, and where the economy is going to find it more hard to fund the cost of curing and older population, now more than ever is prevention the best form of treatment – as any judge would tell you.
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Councillor Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said she was “pleased” with the ruling. We’ve got to prioritise and decide where we should rank this in the list of NHS spending priorities.
