Thread by @ireland

When I first heard that people living with HIV on effective treatment cannot pass on #HIV to sexual partners. I had trouble trying to get my head around it. Because it challenged the status quo and decades of beliefs I had about #HIV

I read up on the science behind the claim. In the PARTNER study, there were ZERO transmissions out of 58,000 condomless sex acts between people with HIV on effective treatment who had undetectable viral loads and their HIV negative partners. Undetectable equals Untransmittable

In the PARTNER 2, which was the extension of PARTNER and studied men who have sex with men, there were ZERO transmissions out of 77,000 condomless sex acts between people with HIV on effective treatment with undetectable viral loads and their HIV negative partners. #UequalsU

In the Opposites Attract study, there were ZERO transmissions out of 17,000 condomless sex acts between HIV positive undetectable and HIV negative male partners - I was stunned. This is remarkable. Then I thought why doesn't anyone know this? Why didn't I know this?

Recently I was talking to a guy living with #HIV and undetectable. His wife is negative and they started a family together. He has two sons now, both negative because there was ZERO chance of him passing on HIV to his partner.

In Ireland, nearly 95% of people living with #HIV, connected to care and on treatment are Undetectable. They're getting on with life. You know what would make life better for them? If we learnt more about #HIV and stopped treating people living with #HIV with suspicion and fear.

If you want to know more about #UequalsU check out #ACTUPDublin website - actupdublin.com/uequalsu/