San Francisco’s “getting to zero” initiative to effectively end the city’s HIV epidemic continues to show notable progress, with new cases of HIV falling as people living with the virus are better engaged in care, aidsmap reports. A World AIDS Day forum in the city on December 1 saw reports from various officials highlighting such successes.

The city’s 2014 HIV Epidemiology Annual Report showed that new HIV diagnoses dropped by more than 18 percent between 2013 and 2014, from 371 to 302, the lowest-ever figure in the city since the epidemic began. Just 14 of the new diagnoses were among women in 2014, and all racial and ethnic groups saw diagnoses fall. Meanwhile, the all-cause death rate of San Franciscans with HIV dropped 15 percent between 2013 and 2014, from 209 to 177.

As of November 2015, an estimated 3,854 San Franciscans has been identified as taking Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), though the figure does not account for all prescribers in the city.

In 2013, an estimated 93 percent of residents living with HIV had been diagnosed, while 69 percent were in care for the virus and 60 percent had a fully suppressed viral load and therefore a very low, if not completely eliminated, risk of transmitting the virus. The respective corresponding national figures were 87 percent, 39 percent and 30 percent.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.