The Year America Told Patients You Are Not a Threat
Members of the U=U Steering Committee speak to DailyMail.com, the world’s most read news site, about what U=U means to them.
Roscoe Boyd: ‘We haven’t beaten the stigma yet, there is a lot of resistance even against the science, dating back to years of prejudice. But the recognition that U=U is extremely important. It says we’re not a threat. There’s hope..”
Jennifer Vaughn: “I can’t describe what it meant to me to find out about U=U [untransmittable = undetectable]. For me, in a relationship with someone who is HIV negative, it makes me feel like I am normal and I don’t feel like I’m a threat in any way.”
Kevin Maloney: “I had been walking around for years with this stat always in my mind that I was a four percent risk. It was always just like, ugh, I’m still a risk to my partner, I can never have sex unafraid – you can try but the thought is always there. It really felt like that weight came off my shoulders. For many years I had avoided relationships and now it’s like, wow, I have the opportunity to educate other people like me about what this means, to have my own healthy relationships. We all yearn for companionship and sometimes when you’re living with HIV you feel like you may never love again or you may never find love, so in that aspect, it’s really big.”
