Vertical HIV transmission should be excluded from criminal prosecution (2009)
Joanne Csete and colleagues argue that criminal laws on HIV transmission and exposure should be reviewed and revised to ensure that vertical transmission is explicitly excluded as an object of criminal prosecution. Scaling up PMTCT services and ensuring that they are affordable, accessible, welcoming and of good quality is the most effective strategy for reducing vertical transmission of HIV and should be the primary strategy in all countries.
Risk of HIV transmission through condomless sex in serodifferent gay couples with the HIV-positive partner taking suppressive antiretroviral therapy (PARTNER): final results of a multicentre, prospective, observational study
Study findings provide conclusive evidence that the risk of HIV transmission through anal sex when HIV viral load is suppressed is effectively zero.Among the 782 serodifferent gay couples followed for almost 1600 eligible couple-years of follow-up, which included more than 76 000 reports of condomless sex, zero cases of within-couple HIV transmission were found. In the absence of ART, on the basis of the frequency and type of sex, for receptive condomless anal sex acts alone approximately 472 transmissions would have been expected. The results give equivalence of evidence for gay men as for heterosexual couples and indicate that the risk of HIV transmission when HIV viral load is suppressed is effectively zero for both anal and vaginal sex.
HIV Transmission in Male Serodiscordant Couples in Australia, Thailand and Brazil
Reports an interim analysis of the relationship between undetectable viral load and HIV transmission in the Opposites Attract observational cohort study of homosexual male serodiscordant couples in Australia. Finds no linked HIV transmissions in 150 ‘couple years of follow up’ among homosexual male serodiscordant couples, despite close to six thousand acts of condomless anal sex.