Australian Minister for Health includes U=U in National Strategy to Address HIV

Australian Minister for Health, the Honourable Greg Hunt MP, has as of World AIDS Day 2018 included the U=U message in the national strategies to address HIV, STI and Blood Borne Viruses

The reference to U=U now exists in two of the five national strategies recently released, the Eighth National HIV Strategy and the Fifth National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections Strategy and explicitly states in both cases, “Research to date has found that people with HIV who take ART and achieve and maintain sustained viral suppression have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner. This is commonly referred to as undetectable = untransmittable or U=U.”

“The success of these strategies relies on continuing to build a strong evidence base to better inform our responses, evaluating our approaches to identify what is most effective, and further strengthening our workforce, partnerships and connections to priority populations,” says Minister Hunt. “These national strategies recognise the considerable work already being progressed collaboratively by governments, community-based organisations, researchers, health professionals and communities.” You can find the national report here and the aboriginal report here.