A cogitation of gay male twosome where one better half has HIV and is being treated with antiretroviral therapy while the other is HIV - free has shown just how effective virus crushing can be . It demonstrates the obstruction to eliminating AIDS within a life is getting drug to everyone who needs them .
Professor Alison Rodgerof University College London recruited 782 positive / minus couples from 14 Europen countries and had them record how often they had sex activity , and whether they used condoms , over a period that average out two years . Immune cell counts and viral load were checked regularly for the HIV - positive better half to substantiate the medicine ’s achiever .
For 97 per centum , the pedigree viral load was insensible . More than 76,000 acts of condomless anal sex between the partners were reported , along , of course , with many other sexual acts with lower transmission risk . Whether because they were in an open relationship , cheat , or had sex with someone else after a break - up , more than a third of the HIV - negative human beings also reported at least one number of condomless sex with someone besides their regular partner .
Fifteen of the men ( 2 percent ) who were HIV - negative at the start of the test contracted the virus during the tryout , Rodger account inThe Lancet . However , in every case , virus DNA designate they had dissimilar breed from the one their partner had , so it must have been caught elsewhere .
The study demonstrate existing anti - HIV drug inhibit the computer virus so well they not only bring home the bacon near - normal lifespans for the people on them , but can well-nigh eliminate the risk of transmission . “ Our findings support the message of theinternational U = U campaignthat an undetectable viral loading makes HIV untransmittable , ” Rodger toldThe Guardian .
On the other hand , it is clean there are still many men either unaware of their HIV position , or non - uniform enough in taking computer virus - suppressant drugs that they can still transmit .
The findings are consistent withprevious studiesin mostly heterosexual couple where one better half had the computer virus , and refute the feeling there is something unambiguously risky about gender between men .
Rodger and atomic number 27 - authors argue the findings accent the need to increase testing , not only for the health of those who may have the virus but to foreclose new casing . Rodger expressed the Leslie Townes Hope that the results will come down HIV stigma , something that is likely to encourage examination .
The biggest problem for HIV restraint , however , lies in place where getting antiretroviral drugs , or even testing , is hard . Arecent studyfound HIV transmissions within the European Union top out in 2004 , and have been in subsequent slow decline . However , in Europe as a whole rates have almost duplicate since , as a result of a rapid increment in Eastern Europe , primarily through heterosexual transmission . Worldwide , less than 22 million of the judge 40 million the great unwashed with HIV are receiving treatment .
