People who are living with HIV and are effectively treated, do not transfer the HIV virus in sexual contact. This can be read in the consensus statement Aidsfonds - Soa Aids Netherlands and hundreds of scientists, medical and health organizations now subscribe to.
U=U stands for Undetectable = Untransmittable. It is scientifically proven that you cannot transfer HIV if you are successfully treated with a combination therapy, and have an undetectable ‘viral load’ (amount of HIV in your blood) because of it. When treated effectively, the risk of transfer is negligible and, in practice, irrelevant. Even when having sex without a condom. When having sex without a condom, you are still at risk of other STDs.
It is essential that the U=U message is heard by everyone worldwide. This knowledge helps prevent the stigmatisation of people with HIV and is important in the fight against the spreading of HIV. Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Netherlands will include this message in all of its communiqués and educational projects.
Second study again demonstrates that effective HIV-treatment prevents HIV transmission
The PARTNER study, in which 1166 couples participated, looked at one HIV negative partner having sex with an HIV positive partner whose viral load was undetectable. Two thirds of the participants were heterosexual, and one third of the group consisted of homosexuals. During the study, the couples recorded how often they had sex without a condom. In heterosexual couples this was 36,000 times, in homosexual couples 22,000 times.
In all these 58,000 individual occurrences of sexual intercourse, HIV was not passed on once. In the OPPOSITES ATTRACT study, the very same study was conducted with 344 homosexual couples. After 16,889 individual cases of anal sex without condoms between HIV negative men and HIV positive men that are undetectable, HIV was not transmitted once.
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