Sustained viral load suppression equals no risk of HIV transmission sexually - UNAIDS

Sustained viral load suppression equals no risk of HIV transmission sexually – UNAIDS

Dec 08, 2018 News

It is important that testing is freely available to anyone who wants to know one’s HIV status. This was the assertion of Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, who in a recently released report stated “I am hearing how important it is to keep HIV suppressed.
“Having an undetectable viral load—a level of HIV in a person’s blood so low that it can’t be detected—is vital.”
In essence, Sidibe pointed out that HIV suppression helps to improve the health of people living with HIV and by extension, reduces deaths. He backed his argument by giving emphasis to the notion that people with sustained viral load suppression have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to a partner who is HIV-negative.
“I have seen the successes. A full 75 percent of people living with HIV knew their HIV status in 2017, up from 66 percent in 2015—in three short years the number of people living with HIV who don’t know their status fell from a third to a quarter,” Sidibe noted

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director.

He noted that worldwide, the percentage of people living with HIV, who are virally suppressed has increased significantly, from 38 percent in 2015 to 47 percent in 2017. He, however, noted that access is mixed.
“In some parts of the world, getting a viral load test is easy—it is fully integrated into a person’s treatment regime—but in other places it is close to impossible, with only one viral load machine for the entire country,” Sidibe added.
He explained that to reach the 90–90–90 targets, including the target of ensuring that 90 percent of people on treatment have a suppressed viral load, “we have to redouble our efforts to reach the millions who are not aware of their HIV status and to reach the millions who are not virally suppressed.”
In 2014, UNAIDS and partners launched the 90-90-90 targets which aims at the diagnosis of at least 90 percent of all HIV-positive persons; the provision of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for 90 percent of those diagnosed, and achieving viral suppression for 90 percent of those treated by 2020.
To reach the millions who do not know their status, Sidibe stressed the need for universal access to HIV testing services. HIV testing, he said, should be as widely available as pregnancy testing. But to reach the millions who are not virally suppressed, he added, “We need viral load monitoring to be as available in Lilongwe as in London.”
“HIV testing and viral load testing should be universal. In the past few years we have seen incredible innovations become available and helping to revolutionize the AIDS response,” Sidibe said as he considered the impact of HIV self-testing kits.
These kits, he noted, allow people to test for HIV in privacy, expanding testing rates among hard-to-reach populations.
According to the UNAIDS Executive Director, HIV self-testing is reaching more and more men, young people and key populations including: gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs, prisoners and other incarcerated people and migrants.
He noted too that point-of-care viral load testing machines are bringing virological testing nearer to the people who need it. He, nevertheless, noted that technology alone will not be enough to ensure that people can access the HIV testing services they need.
This is in light of the fact that stigma, discrimination and abuses of human rights are still among the biggest barriers to the uptake of all HIV services, including testing, Sidibe said. He, moreover, stressed that stigma and discrimination must be confronted wherever it is experienced.
“Human rights, including one of the most fundamental, the right to health, need to be upheld if we are ever to reach our goal of ending AIDS. HIV testing gives people the knowledge they need to make choices—choices on the right options for treatment and prevention. Knowledge really is power…the power of people to determine the right options to keep healthy, and the power to stay well and live long and productive lives. Let’s ensure that everyone has that power,” Sidibe appealed.