HIV Positive, Not Transmittable

Perhaps you found yourself reading the title of this article twice. Could it be true that a person who is HIV positive can have unprotected sex without infecting others? The Israeli HIV Association and the AIDS Task Force’s answer is “absolutely yes”, and their newest Campaign Undetectable is spreading the word that the chance of being infected by having unprotected sex with an undetectable carrier of HIV is less than 0.01%.

We turned to Dr. Margalit Lorber, a world class HIV expert at the Rambam Health Campus in Haifa who hosts participants in our Health programmes every year, to find out what undetectable means. What she had to tell us is as exciting as it is unbelievable.

Dr. Lorber (left) has been hosting participants of our programmes on HIV/AIDS management for years.

First we learned that most HIV positive patients in Israel today are undetectable, thanks to a policy of Test and Treat that offers early antiretroviral therapy (ART) on account of the government as soon as the patient is diagnosed. In some countries, patients are treated only once they have reached a CD+4 of <350, but the treatment is most successful for a CD+4 cell count of >350, and patients in Israel today receive it at any CD+4 cell count. Early treatment results in significantly less cardiovascular morbidity and cancer, and it is no longer administered in the form of a large cocktail of pills. The patient is only required to take one pill a day, sometimes smaller than a drop of water. Full restoration of the immune system is possible, and today in Israel no children are born with HIV.

The claim that the chance of infection by unprotected sex is less than 0.01% is based on medical data taken from tens of thousands of couples, and the implications for those infected with HIV are enormous. Dr. Lorber explained that undetectable carriers can safely enter relationships, have children, study, work, receive all dental and health treatments and even perform surgery risk free. Becoming undetectable both improves quality of life and helps alleviate the stigma associated with the disease.

She told us of how she, along with other doctors and researchers advanced these changes in the policy and treatment of HIV. They pushed the government strongly to raise the threshold for treatment. Her message to doctors all over the world: “Doctors can bring change!”