The largest treatment-as-prevention study for gay and bisexual men confirms that people on antiretroviral therapy with undetectable viral load do not transmit HIV.
Results from the PARTNER2 study, which enrolled nearly 1,000 mixed-status gay male couples in 14 European countries, saw no genetically linked HIV transmissions when the positive partner was on effective treatment.
“PARTNER2 data provides robust evidence for gay men that the risk of HIV transmission with suppressive antiretroviral therapy is zero,” said lead investigator Dr. Alison Rodger of University College London.
Rodger presented the study results at the International AIDS Conference last summer in Amsterdam, as the Bay Area Reporter reported at the time, but their publication last week in the Lancet prompted a flurry of news coverage and some exaggerated claims, including the Guardian’s headline “End to AIDS in sight as huge study finds drugs stop HIV transmission.”
The study’s results are neither new nor surprising. Treatment as prevention, along with PrEP, is an essential part of the effort to halt new infections, but the end is not in sight. Many people living with HIV are not aware of their status, have not started treatment, or have not maintained viral suppression.