Chicago Department of Public Health announced on Sept. 28 that city officials were joining the international “U=U” promotional campaign aimed both at raising awareness about the effectiveness of HIV treatment and reducing stigmatization of persons with HIV/AIDS.
“U=U” is an abbreviation for “Undetectable=Untransmittable.” The campaign was launched in 2016 by the Prevention Access Campaign, an international coalition of advocates and service providers which, according to its website, united “to clarify and disseminate the revolutionary but largely unknown fact that people living with HIV on effective treatment do not sexually transmit HIV.”
Providers and advocates have already referred to the strategies U=U endorses as Treatment as Prevention, or TasP. Behind those strategies is the idea that infected persons with undectable viral loads both cannot transmit HIV and can enjoy good health.
CDPH Deputy Commissioner Dave Kern said that the endorsement is part of the framework of the Getting to Zero campaign the City launched Sept. 19 aimed at eliminating new HIV infections by the year 2027, and puts the city’s weight behind solid scientific evidence about the effectiveness of TasP interventions.
“It will really challenge both the public-health community and health care providers to unify around this message, and begin to move away from messaging that has been inconsistent and confusing to people living with HIV,” he acknowledged. “We use the science to drive our messaging and provide correct information to residents.”
Kern added, “We hope it will get people living with HIV to begin anti-retroviral therapy and other therapies to keep them and their partners healthy. Persons living with HIV oftentimes live with stigma, shame and fear, and this will help reduce that, which is critical.”