New Study: Gay Men On Anti-Retroviral Meds Have "Pretty Much" Zero Chance Of Infecting Others

Results of a new large-scale study of gay men presented this week at the 9th International AIDS Conference on HIV Science in Paris shows HIV+ people taking regular antiretroviral medication have “pretty much” a zero chance of infecting others during either gay or straight sex.

From the Washington Blade:

In the largest-ever trial on HIV transmission risk among gay men, Australian researchers explored the sex lives and HIV rates of more than 350 homosexual couples where one person is HIV positive. The couples were from Brazil, Thailand and Australia, CNN reports.

Each couple reported their sexual activity when visiting clinics involved in the trial and HIV-negative partners were regularly tested to diagnose any new infections, CNN reports. The couples participating reported having sex almost 17,000 times without condoms between them over four years, and none of those times resulted in new infections.

”There was not a single linked HIV infection in these couples,” said Andrew Grulich, professor of epidemiology at the University of New South Wales in Australia, who led the study. “Nobody became infected from their partner,” CNN quoted him as having said.