Patients with Undetectable HIV Do Not Pose Transmission Risk
“In 1996 we learned effective treatment would save our lives,” [Bruce Richman, executive director of Prevention Access Campaign] said. “Now we know that it will prevent us from passing HIV on to our partners. This news dismantles the internalized stigma, fear, and shame that people with HIV have lived and died with for over 35 years.”
Richman said that internalized stigma can lead to a number of side effects, including depression, self-harm and suicide. The stigma can also diminish patients’ willingness to start or continue with treatment, he said, despite the high effectiveness of HIV/AIDS drugs.
“We’ve heard from many folks since the beginning of the campaign that the news has given them hope, a new lease on life, the chance to love and be intimate again, and the opportunity to conceive children without alternative and expensive means of insemination,” he said.
