US News and World Report: Living With HIV

“Darriane Martin, manager of HIV prevention for AltaMed Health Services Corp. in Los Angeles, agrees that an HIV-positive diagnosis is a far different thing now than it was when the disease first emerged as a scary epidemic in the 1980s. “Nearly 40 years of research has revolutionized the HIV treatment and management landscape. Groundbreaking new treatment regimens have paved the way to scientifically rooted concepts such as ‘Undetectable equals Untransmittable.’ U=U means that people who are HIV-positive, receiving treatment and who have a medically undetectable viral load will not transmit HIV to their partners.”

That U=U proposition first gained traction nearly a decade ago, Malvestutto says. “This is one of the most exciting findings we’ve had. In 2011, we noted that transmission of the virus to anybody exposed to it by a patient with an undetectable viral load who was on treatment was so low it seemed to be zero. Subsequent studies — most recently the PARTNER trial, which followed couples where one had HIV and the other didn’t — tracked thousands of sexual acts without a condom. When we looked at the data, the transmission rate was effectively zero, as long as the viral load is zero and the HIV-positive partner is on treatment,” he explains.”

Read more at Yahoo News.