The data discussed above shows that HIV infection remains highly concentrated amongst certain groups in the UK which are reasonably easy to target with services intended to minimise HIV transmission.

• Targeting of gay men will address the group in which the chances of HIV infection continue to be highest. A UK gay man in London has about 200 times as much chance of coming across a sexual partner with HIV as a British-born heterosexual outside London, and gay men still account for four out of five HIV infections caught within the UK.
• Despite this, funding for gay-specific HIV prevention campaigns has been disproportionately low. The CHAPS gay mens HIV prevention partnership had funding of about £1.7 million in 2004 (lower than its budget in 1998). Adding other gay mens initiatives brings the sum spent on gay men to about £3.5 million, or about 15%  of the total HIV prevention budget.
• Targeting of injecting drug users will continue to be necessary despite apparently declining prevalence amongst this group (see Injecting drug users above). This is because the number of new drug users and registered addicts continues to increase. Whilst the situation amongst injecting drug users in the UK remains relatively stable, this is highly dependent on the continued provision of needle/syringe exchange schemes and ongoing education in prisons.
• Strategies which promote condom use amongst injecting drug users and their partners will have a significant impact on new infections through sexual intercourse.
• African communities in the UK will continue to experience a high incidence of AIDS; educational methods appropriate to these communities need to be stepped up. This group has been particularly neglected by HIV prevention initiatives in the UK despite widespread awareness that a terrible epidemic is going on in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Other ethnic groups in the UK will be vulnerable to HIV according to the degree that HIV and AIDS are affecting an ethnic group's country of origin and the extent to which members of that group travel back and forth between the UK and the country of origin.
• Female sex workers are at high risk of HIV infection, but seem to have remained remarkably unaffected by HIV compared with other European countries. This is probably due in large part to low levels of infection amongst injecting drug users in the UK, but sex workers will only continue to remain unaffected provided that current educational efforts continue.
• Infection while travelling abroad accounts for a growing proportion of cases amongst heterosexual men and women; travellers and workers abroad can be targeted by a variety of methods depending on their destination. For instance, it is reasonable to assume that anyone who requires vaccination against tropical infections will also be in particular need of education about the risks of HIV infection abroad. Similarly, seafarers are likely to be at risk.
• Women are more vulnerable to infection than heterosexual men in the UK because they are more likely than heterosexual men to have partners who are bisexual or who are injecting drug users. Many women report that they were unaware of being at risk until they learnt of their HIV status either through ante-natal testing or through diagnosis as a consequence of illness.
• Partner notification programmes may be one of the most appropriate mechanisms by which new infections amongst heterosexual women can be prevented.

These are the core groups at risk for HIV infection in the UK. Targeting also needs to address the discrimination experienced by these groups and by people with HIV and AIDS generally.