The science is clear, the evidence overwhelming: HIV-positive people with an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the virus to sex partners. This message has gone a long way in combating HIV stigma, as Carrie Foote, Ph.D., a founder of the Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U) campaign, can attest.
“Having tested positive myself in 1988, I lived in fear for nearly 25 years,” said Foote, speaking at the 2019 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). “U=U takes away that fear.”
At CROI 2019, the evidence of U=U was not up for debate. Rather, attendees gathered on March 6 to learn about the next frontiers of HIV transmission research at a symposium titled “The Story of U: Implications of Undetectable Viral Load on Transmission.”
A Swiss History of U=U
In 2008, Switzerland’s Pietro Vernazza, M.D., published a controversial statement in the Bulletin of Swiss Medicine that said people with an undetectable viral load for at least six months do not need to use condoms during sex to prevent HIV transmission.
That statement sparked a global debate on the validity of a premise that, at the time, ran counter to medical consensus about condom use.