London HIV services cut as infections within UK rises

London's HIV prevention groups have said they are "concerned" and "outraged" at a 20% cut to their funding.

Meanwhile, the number of Londoners diagnosed with HIV who acquired the infection in the UK, has more than doubled in the past decade, latest figures show.

Inner North West London Primary Care Trust, which manages the Pan London HIV Prevention Programme, has cut the capital's HIV prevention budget for 2011-12 by £516,000, compared with the previous year.

But latest figures show the number of people in London diagnosed with HIV acquired in the UK has increased from 660 in 2001 to 1,480 in 2010, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Dr Paul Crook, the HPA's epidemiologist for London said: "The HIV epidemic in London continues to present a major public health problem."

In the capital, 28,000 people are living with HIV - that's one in every 200 Londoners aged between 15 to 59 years old - a rate three times higher than any other region in England.