New HIV diagnoses have fallen by half in five years.

The figures for Brighton and Hove were revealed at last week’s conference of the joint British HIV Association (BHIVA) and British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) in Edinburgh.

Bill Puddicombe, chief executive of HIV charity Sussex Beacon, said: “The services in Brighton are as good as they are anywhere and the fact that Brighton gets to things first may be what’s showing up in these figures.

“There is no room for complacency but Brighton can take a bow for proactive work it’s done.”

In London between January 2015 and September 2017, new diagnoses at one clinic in London fell by 80 per cent with similar trends at other clinics.

These falls have been attributed to more frequent testing in gay men at greater risk of infection, men who are diagnosed beginning HIV treatment immediately, and the clinics supporting men to use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

In Brighton and Hove, the numbers began falling two years before they did in London.

At the beginning of 2013, there were around six cases each month in the city, with the average steadily falling to a little over two a month in late 2017.

Repeat HIV testing among gay men at higher risk of HIV infection has not increased as much in Brighton as in London.

Instead, Brighton clinicians think long-term work to improve HIV diagnoses outside sexual health services may have paid off.

Education and awareness events with GPs and hospital clinicians working in other areas of medicine have resulted in steady increases in diagnoses made in other healthcare settings.

Additionally, in Brighton patients receive rapid initiation of treatment after diagnosis.

Ninety two per cent start treatment within 90 days of diagnosis, compared with 76 per cent nationally.

Almost all diagnosed individuals take treatment (98 per cent) and have an undetectable viral load (98 per cent), which means the level of HIV in their blood is undetectable.

Few people drop out of care – just 0.5 per cent compared with 2.6 per cent nationally.

Some 370 gay men take PrEP and seek clinical support for it.

The authors of the report to the conference wrote: “In contrast to the steep fall in London clinics, the absence of a continued fall after 2015 in Brighton may in part be due to a relative lack of increase in repeat testing in high risk men who have sex with men.”