Canadians living with HIV/AIDS should no longer face a possible prison sentence for failing to disclosure their HIV status to sexual partners, says an acclaimed Canadian doctor who helped revolutionize the treatment of HIV worldwide.
Today’s triple drug cocktails known as HAART, or highly active antiretroviral therapy, can reduce the viral load of people living with HIV to undetectable levels – making their risk of transmitting the virus to partners “exceedingly low,” Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and colleagues write in this week’s edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Despite this, Canada has witnessed “an escalation in the number of people prosecuted for allegedly exposing sexual partners to the virus,” the team writes. This country “now ranks among the world leaders in the rate of such prosecutions.” Yet strong scientific evidence now exists to justify doing away with routine prosecutions for HIV nondisclosure, Montaner and colleagues Dr. M-J Milloy and Thomas Kerr, write in the journal.