The Partner Study was conducted using 888 couples (serodiscordant – one was HIV-posititve and undetectable / one HIV-negative). The couples had condomless sex a total of 58,000 times and the virus was never transmitted. Not a single time.
PAC Consensus Statement contains expert quotes, explanations and sources as well as a listing of scientists, leading clinicians and organizations who actively endorse the science of being undetectable = untransmittable. This is a growing list as more and more doctors and organizations update themselves with the newer research and discontinue outdated research.
“If you are durably virologically suppressed your chance of transmitting HIV to your partner is ZERO. Let’s be clear about that: Zero” – Dr. Carl Dieffanbach, Director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health.
#UequalsU
Prevention Access Campaign
collaborated with leading researchers to help people living with HIV who are on treatment and who have undetectable viral loads answer a fundamental question:
Am I a risk to my partner?
The answer is NO. You can feel confident that if you have an undetectable viral load and you take your medications properly, you cannot pass on HIV to your sexual partners.
- Stay on treatment
- Stay undetectable
- Stop transmission
This is life-changing, stigma-busting, transmission-stopping news!
However, the majority of people living with HIV do no know it yet. There are still many confusing messages, outdated website, and even uninformed healthcare workers.
“Once you begin therapy and you stay on therapy, with full virologic suppression you are
not capable of transmitting HIV to a sexual partner. With successful ART that individual is
no longer infectious.”
Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, Director of the Division of AIDS, National Institutes of Health NIH (Aug. 2016)
“We can now say with confidence that
if you are taking HIV medication as prescribed, and have had an undetectable viral load for over six months, you cannot pass on HIV with or without a condom. The risk is effectively zero.”
Medical Director, Terrence Higgins Trust, London, England (July 2016)
“[PARTNER study] provides the strongest estimate of actual risk of HIV transmission when an HIV positive person has undetectable viral load – and that this risk is effectively zero.“
Steering Committee, PARTNER study, i-BASE (July 2016)
People living with HIV “are leading lives that are normal in quality and length. With effective treatment, they are not infectious.”
Chief Medical Officer, England. The Telegraph (Aug. 2013)
Thank you to the Prevention Access Campaign for allowing us to share this information directly from their website.
