Well this is encouraging news.

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

No-one with an undetectable viral load, gay or heterosexual, transmits HIV in first two years of PARTNER study

 

Granted, the full results won't be out until 2017.

 

"The previous study, HPTN 052, established in 2011 that the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy in the HIV-positive partner was at least 96% in heterosexual couples, but had too few gay couples in it to establish if the same applied to them (or rather to anal sex).

 

The PARTNER study was designed to remedy this gap in knowledge. It has so far recruited 1110 couples where the partners have differing HIV status – and nearly 40% of them are gay couples.

 

In order to be in the study, couples have to be having sex without condoms at least some of the time."

 

.

.

.

 

The main news is that in PARTNER so far there have been no transmissions within couples from a partner with an undetectable viral load, in what was estimated as 16,400 occasions of sex in the gay men and 14,000 in the heterosexuals.

 

Although some of the HIV-negative partners became HIV positive (exactly how many will be revealed in later analyses), genetic testing of the HIV revealed that in all cases the virus came from someone other than the main partner.

[rvwnsd]

Wow, those are some very interesting results. Particularly interesting is the revelation that the previously-negative partners acquired the virus from someone other than their HIV+ partner.

[+ deej]

The main news is that in PARTNER so far there have been no transmissions within couples from a partner with an undetectable viral load, in what was estimated as 16,400 occasions of sex in the gay men and 14,000 in the heterosexuals.

 

Although some of the HIV-negative partners became HIV positive (exactly how many will be revealed in later analyses), genetic testing of the HIV revealed that in all cases the virus came from someone other than the main partner.

 

Unfortunately, all the conditions and caveats will get lost. People will hear "unprotected sex is OK now". <sigh>

 

We live in the information age but the bulk of our society is decidedly low information. Heck, just this week a study showed that 1 in 10 Americans think HTML is an STD. Really! (They also think MP3 is a character from "Star Wars" and Blu-Ray is a kind of dolphin.)

 

Even if the details sink in, it means the old "I'll pull out before I cum" lie becomes "my viral load is undetectable".

 

There's good news here, to be sure! But there's an unfortunate dark side.

[doitb4ugo]

Well, It's not so dark a side for those living with HIV+.

[+ deej]

Well, It's not so dark a side for those living with HIV+.

 

I think you mean those with HIV with an undetectable viral load.

 

See how quickly the details melt away?

[+ FreshFluff]

I think you mean those with HIV with an undetectable viral load.

 

I had assumed that this the norm for HIV positive people taking ARVs.

 

But yeah, my first reaction was the same: This is great news but, in the heat of the moment, may turn into an excuse for not using condoms.

[Steven_Draker]

This is encouraging news if you're in a stable long-term relationship with a sero-discordant partner who is on ART and has been undetectable for six months.

 

In addition to the Swiss Study published 6 years ago it shows that:

 

"No transmissions occurred despite quite high levels of STIs, especially in the gay couples. When the 'Swiss Statement' was released in 2008, it declared that people with an undetectable viral load did not transmit HIV, but made an exception of people with an STI: the PARTNER study may be telling us that STIs (in either the positive or negative partner) don’t increase the likelihood of HIV transmission if the positive partner is on ART and undetectable (though of course they can still be transmitted themselves).

 

PARTNER is still recruiting gay male couples and, as noted above, its full results will not be out till 2017. Till then we need to be cautious about what it has proved, and, as Jens Lundgren pointed out, it will probably never be possible to show with mathematical certainty that the risk of transmission from someone on successful HIV therapy is absolutely zero. In addition, these results exclude situations where ART failed in the HIV positive partner, though there were relatively few of these cases."