Study Finds HIV Treatment Works as Prevention

A report of a study investigating the effectiveness of HIV treatment to reduce HIV transmission indicates that people living with HIV who have an undetectable viral load, have an almost zero chance of transmitting the virus to a sexual partner. The interim results of the Partners Study were presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston this week, the final report of the study will be released in 2017. The participants in the study are a mix of heterosexual and gay couples, with the positive partner being on anti-retroviral treatment.
The study enrolled both heterosexual and homosexual couples to determine the risk of HIV transmission from individuals taking effective HIV treatment. 1,100 couples are in the study, 40 percent of whom are gay.
The report confirms the legitimacy of strategies like “treatment as prevention” as an additional tool in the suite of measures available to prevent HIV transmission. Treatment as prevention is the strategy of using antiretroviral drugs to prevent onward transmission of HIV. Researchers determined the likelihood of transmission being “extremely low and possibly zero” for the negative partner in a relationship with a HIV positive person. However, the study also found that some HIV negative men became HIV positive from a sexual partner outside the primary relationship which points to the continued importance of condom based safe sex outside a context of undetectable viral load.
The positive prevention effects of HIV treatment to reduce onward transmission could be thwarted by the fact that around a quarter of the people living with HIV in Australia do not know their status and possibly present a significant transmission risk. It is estimated that 8,000 people in Australia do not know that they are HIV positive.
VAC/GMHC CEO, Simon Ruth said the report highlights the importance of policy initiatives that support people to know their HIV status. “In order to commence HIV treatment, an individual has to know their HIV status. Initiatives such as rapid testing increase the number of avenues available to get tested.” Mr Ruth also said that “other testing options like home based or self testing should also be considered by the Commonwealth Government to further expand the options available to people to know their HIV status.”
VAC/GMHC President Greg Carter said that “while the results of this report are positive and further raise the prospect of treatment playing a major role in reducing HIV transmissions in the community, the decision to commence treatment should remain with PLWHIV and should balance the benefits of treatment to the individual with the preventive benefits of treatment to the community.”