Marin Voice: ‘Undetectable equals untransmittable’ is a big breakthrough for HIV patients

published on April 14, 2019 by David Brown, in Marin Independent Journal

In 1985, I was working in an STD clinic in Nashville and was one of two HIV counselors doing pre-test and post-test counseling for people most likely getting the very first HIV test of their lives.

There were no anti-HIV medications available at that time, and the only ounce of hope you could impart to these newly infected people was that there appeared to be more HIV-positive (POZ) people not yet ill than POZ persons who were having symptoms.

In 1985, untreated POZ people most likely had very high HIV viral loads (high amounts of active HIV virus in the body), were therefore very infectious and highly likely to pass HIV on to other sex or needle sharing partners.

In 2019, by contrast, we have a total of 51 medications at our disposal to fight HIV (33 individual anti-HIV meds and 18 combination anti-HIV meds). We are also finding that the majority of HIV patients consistently taking these anti-HIV meds have achieved undetectable levels of HIV in their bodies (defined as less than 200 copies/ml or a less than 200 HIV viral load). We know that current treatments are prolonging life for HIV POZ people.

In a true game-changer for the future of the epidemic, multiple studies have shown that HIV-positive people who are undetectable do not transmit the virus to others.

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Marin Voice: ‘Undetectable equals untransmittable’ is a big breakthrough for HIV patients

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