2. Treatment as Prevention
Although experts suggested as early as 2008 that antiretroviral therapy could prevent HIV transmission, the past decade brought incontrovertible evidence that treatment is prevention. In 2011, researchers with the HPTN 052 trial reported that effective treatment reduced transmission risk in heterosexual couples by 96%. Subsequently, the PARTNER, PARTNER2 and Opposites Attract studies showed that people with a stable undetectable viral load—both heterosexuals and gay men—do not transmit HIV via sex. These findings sparked a new movement to promote awareness that undetectable equals untransmittable, or U=U.
