HIV Information

Who is most affected?

The two groups most affected by HIV in the UK are men who have sex with men (MSM) and migrants from regions of the world where a relatively high proportion of the population has HIV, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

So the HIV epidemic in the UK has two distinct aspects. The overwhelming majority (84%) of those infected with HIV in the UK over the past two decades are men who have sex with men, but the majority of people newly diagnosed in recent years have been infected through heterosexual sex, and are often of African origin.

Because of the ways that HIV can be transmitted, other groups that face significant risk of contracting HIV are injecting drug users and babies born to mothers with HIV. In the past some people also got HIV through blood products but in the UK this is now extremely rare.