Created by people living with HIV who are undetectable, and produced by Bruce Richman of the Prevention Access Campaign, the new short film U=U: Undetectable = Untransmittable seeks to educate the public about what it means to be undetectable.
Richman says the short was created "to celebrate the news that having an undetectable viral load means that we are not capable of transmitting the virus to our partners." He also adds that the continually mounting evidence of that is so solid that Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, the head of AIDS division at the National Institute of Health, said in an interview last week that a person who is durably virally suppressed has a zero risk of transmitting HIV.
"However, virtually all HIV communications in the U.S. convey that there is still a risk, or warn that the risk—according to mathematic models—is not zero," Richman says. "Exaggerating the 'danger' we are to our others is an act of violence against all of us with HIV, and makes us vulnerable to a myriad of harms and injustices. We deserve and demand accurate and meaningful information that is not only critical to our social, sexual, and reproductive health, but it is essential to end the epidemic."
Well-known HIV prevention activist Damon Jacobs added, "I hope this helps all men and women understand how to pursue emotional connections and sexual pleasures with facts instead of fears."
U=U: Undetectable = Untransmittable from PREVENTION ACCESS CAMPAIGN on Vimeo.
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