EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Sheen reveals his HIV has been fully suppressed by an injection in a clinical trial – as he joins health officials’ supporting the cause on World AIDS Day

Prevention Access Campaign was honored to be featured in the first mass mainstream media outlet to accurately cover HIV transmission risk when virally suppressed.  As the most read news site in the world and the most high profile person living with HIV, Daily Mail and Charlie Sheen provided a large scale opportunity to raise awareness and destigmatize HIV.

 “According to Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, Director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health, this misunderstanding about viral suppression is the biggest obstacle to public awareness surrounding HIV and AIDS today.  

‘If you are durably virologically suppressed you will not transmit to your partner,’ he said. ‘I’ll say this again, for somebody who is in a discordant couple, if the person [with HIV] is virologically suppressed, ‘durably’ – means there is no virus in your system, hasn’t been for several months – your chance of acquiring HIV from that person is ZERO.  Let’s be clear about that: ZERO.  If that person the next day stops therapy for two weeks and rebounds, your chance goes up. That’s why we talk about durable viral suppression. You’re as virologically suppressed as good as your adherence. That’s the message.’   

‘Advances in medicine and science are changing lives in ways that we never thought possible,’ Bruce Richman, executive director of the Prevention Access Campaign, told Daily Mail Online. ‘Twenty years ago we learned that effective HIV treatment would save lives. Now we know it also prevents HIV transmission to others. If we focus on the facts instead of fear, we have unprecedented opportunities to end HIV stigma and end the epidemic.'”

Read more in the DailyMail.com.