Though "Diversity is Our Strength" is a cornerstone mantra of woke leftist ideology, it's been steadily crumbling as people across the West observe the many real-world downsides of uncontrolled migration. Health officials in the United Kingdom have just hit that cornerstone with another sledgehammer, reporting that HIV cases in the UK soared by 51% last year to a 15-year high.
According to a new report from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the UK counted just over 6,000 new cases in 2023. Notably, for the first time, more than half of them (53%) were attributed to people who were originally diagnosed outside the UK. Of that set, 75% of the carriers are African. The migrants are also spreading the disease amongst each other after arriving -- 253 diagnoses were attributed to people who'd been in England less than two years.
"The rise in HIV testing together with a higher and sustained positivity in black African heterosexuals may be suggestive of ongoing transmission. However, this number could also be affected by changing patterns of migration with a recent rise in people diagnosed with HIV abroad arriving in England." - UKHSA
The sudden surge in HIV cases may have doomed health agencies' goal to achieve zero HIV transmission in the UK by 2030.
However, rather than reasonably calling for the government to pump the brakes on immigration, public health types are instead reflexively spouting Marxist blather -- such as National Aids Trust chief executive Robbie Currie, who told the Telegraph that "the latest published HIV data in England shows clearly that a continuing lack of equity and equality is standing in the way of people being able to live well with HIV."
Similarly, Terrence Higgins Trust chief Richard Angell said “Today’s new figures show people from ethnic minorities face an increasing burden of HIV, with rising diagnoses and worse health outcomes than the population as a whole."
Africa is far and away the world's largest cauldron of HIV: A whopping two thirds of the world's HIV-diagnosed population live in the continent. Meanwhile, 23% of the work and study visas issued by the UK last year were given to Africans.
In addition to compounding the peril of the disease, the surge in the UK's HIV-positive population also represents a public financial burden in a country with a socialized medicine scheme that's already under stress. The lifetime cost of managing an HIV patient in the UK has been varyingly estimated to be between £73,000 and £404,000.
