SAMESH is pleased to invite you – community members, clinicians, sector workers, anyone who may be interested – to their community forum, FACTS NOT FEAR: A forum on undetectable viral load. Join our panel of experts and community members to discuss the latest science about undetectable viral load and its role in preventing onward transmission of HIV, and to hear personal perspectives...
The Evidence for U=U: Why Negligible Risk Is Zero Risk
HIV i-Base, August 10, 2017 Over the last year, hundreds of HIV organisations have joined a new campaign to endorse the statement that HIV transmission does not occur when viral load is undetectable on ART. And while the dramatic impact of ART on reducing HIV transmission has been known for a long time, it is new to say ART stops transmission completely. Read more of The Evidence for U=U: Why...
Public health and HIV viral load suppression
UNAIDS, 19 JULY 2017 Key messages: 1. There is growing scientific consensus that people living with HIV who are taking effective antiretroviral therapy and whose virus is suppressed to undetectable levels will not transmit HIV sexually. 2. Treatment is first and foremost about enabling the person living with HIV to regain and maintain good health. Globally, there needs to be better access to...
Child Living with HIV Maintains Remission Without Drugs Since 2008
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), July 24, 2017 A nine-year-old South African child who was diagnosed with HIV infection at one month of age and received anti-HIV treatment during infancy has suppressed the virus without anti-HIV drugs for eight and a half years, scientists reported today at the 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris. This case appears to be the...
VAC responds to PrEP-X Victoria Seroconversion
22 May 2017 VAC has learned that a person on the Victorian PrEPX study has seroconverted and become HIV positive. There are two ways that this may have occurred. • If a person is not adherent to their PrEP regimen (taking the prescribed dose regularly) it is possible that they would not be protected against acquiring HIV; • If a person comes into contact with a person living with HIV who has...
HIV life expectancy ‘near normal’ thanks to new drugs
BBC news, 11 May 2017 Young people on the latest HIV drugs now have near-normal life expectancy because of improvements in treatments, a new study in The Lancet suggests. Twenty-year-olds who started antiretroviral therapy in 2010 are projected to live 10 years longer than those first using it in 1996, it found. Doctors say that starting treatment early is crucial to achieve a long and healthy...