HIV transmissions dropped 71% in the UK. But don’t expect a similar drop in the US.

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The number of new HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men in the U.K. has dropped 71% since 2012, according to the U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care. The department says pre-exposure prophylactics (PrEP) is the main cause.

Sadly, health care barriers in the U.S. may make the same thing hard to replicate in America.

Related: Meet the group of white guys Trump has tasked with ending HIV transmissions

According to data provided by the BBC, HIV transmissions among gay and bi men dropped from 2,800 in 2012 to 800 in 2018.

Of the 103,800 U.K. residents living with HIV, 93% have been diagnosed and 97% are receiving medical treatment that has rendered them undetectable and therefore incapable of transmitting the virus to another person.

U.K. HIV advocates say that PrEP and regular testing have both contributed to the decrease and that the U.K. must now focus on making PrEP even more widely available and reaching older straight men and people over the age of 50 rather than the queers and communities of color stereotypically associated with the virus.

But while the U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the U.K. was “on track to achieve its goal of ending HIV transmission by 2030,” several barriers could prevent the U.S. from achieving the same goal….

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