HIV Transmission

Adhering to HAART Does Not Remove Risk of Passing on Disease

An article recently published by Switzerland’s Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS states that HIV-positive individuals on effective antiretroviral therapy are not at risk for transmitting HIV to their sexual partners under certain circumstances.

The Commission acknowledges that there are no scientific data that the risk of transmission in these circumstances is zero. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underscores its recommendation that people living with HIV who are sexually active use condoms consistently and correctly with all sex partners.

The Swiss AIDS Commission on Jan. 30 in a report based on four studies said that HIV-positive people taking antiretroviral drugs cannot transmit the virus during sex if they are adhering to their treatment regimens and have suppressed HIV viral loads for at least six months, AFP/Yahoo! News reports.

The couples with one HIV-positive partner do not need to use condoms to prevent HIV transmission provided the above conditions are met and the HIV-positive partner does not have any other sexually transmitted infections. One of the studies -- published in the Swiss Bulletin of Medicine -- was conducted in Spain between 1990 and 2003 among 393 heterosexual couples with an HIV-positive person. The study found that none of the HIV-negative partners contracted the virus from an HIV-positive person taking antiretrovirals. Another study conducted in Brazil found that out of 93 couples, 43 with an HIV-positive partner, six people became HIV-positive. All six of the new HIV cases in the Brazil study were attributed to the HIV-positive partners not following their treatment regimens, AFP/Yahoo! News reports.

The two other studies -- one conducted in Uganda and the other conducted among pregnant women -- had similar results, Bernard Hirschel, co-author of the Swiss report and an HIV/AIDS specialist at University Hospital in Geneva, said.

AIDS advocates and prevention workers in other communities are also urging people to continue using condoms as an HIV prevention tool.

"The real thing missing [from the advice] is about anal sex and getting a new sexually transmitted infection," said Roger Peabody of the London-based Terrence Higgins Trust Aids charity.

But Hirschel was adamant that publishing the results of the findings was in the best interests of the public. "I know that these conclusions can provoke certain fears, but I think such credible information which relies on proven and certain facts should be made known," he said.

French AIDS charity Act Up said that 40 per cent of retroviral patients still carry the virus residually despite following their treatment to the letter.

France's National Aids Council warned that the findings were not robust enough to extrapolate wider conclusions from the individual cases cited.