"NI could be left behind in fight against HIV," warns local charity
One of Northern Ireland's leading aids charities has said the drug Prep should be trialled on the NHS here.
Last updated 12th Aug 2017
It comes after the announcement that it would be piloted on the health service in England.
The preventative treatment is thought to help stop people from being infected with the virus.
Jacquie Richardson is the Chief Executive of Positive Life in Northern Ireland.
She says it can help significantly reduce the number of people suffering from the disease:
"Prep is actually pre exposure proprophylaxis, so this is a preventative measure rather than a treatment measure.
"So what this does is to reduce new diagnosis' because it helps to prevent people actually contracting the HIV virus in the first place," she said.
It's thought there could be more than 1000 people suffering from the disease in Northern Ireland currently.
According to the charity, there is a worrying trend in new diagnosis' here:
"Northern Ireland experiences the highest proportionate increase in HIV year on year and that's been happening consistently.
"There are opportunities there to actually prevent this and we're not taking them.
"Prep isn't the silver bullet, you know, for sure, it's not going to be suitable for everybody but certainly given that we know the communities that are highest at risk, we could be doing something to address this," said Mrs Richardson.
PrEP will be available to an estimated 10,000 people on the NHS in England from September, in what will be the largest single study of its type in the world.