HIV Awareness and Prevention

You may know the Human Immunodefiency Virus, or HIV, as a virus that attacks your immune system by gradually decreasing your CD4 white blood cell count until it falls below a certain threshold, leading to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). You may also be familiar with how HIV has historically affected the LGBTQ community – especially gay and bisexual men – since the early 1980s, but you may not be aware of the current progress we’ve made toward HIV prevention and treatment. 

For instance, it’s now common that someone with HIV would never develop AIDS as long as they are receiving regularly receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Moreover, the rate of new annual HIV diagnoses in New York state has decreased by 76% since 2001. This is thanks to mandated HIV education in public schools as well as the development of the medications Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP). PrEP, when taken every day, decreases the risk of contracting HIV through unprotected sex up to 98% and through needle sharing up to 72%. PEP, started within 72 hours of an HIV exposure, is taken daily for four weeks and prevents the contraction of HIV with an approximate 80% success rate.

Another milestone we’ve made in HIV prevention is understanding that Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U). This means that when an HIV+ individual is receiving treatment, their viral load of HIV (a.k.a., the amount of HIV in their blood) can be suppressed to the point of becoming undetectable AND they are also unable to sexually transmit HIV. While we still have a long ways to go with developing a cure or vaccine for HIV, it’s crucial that people know about the tools we currently have at our disposal.

It’s also imperative that people get tested for HIV. There are ~1.2 million people in the United States living with HIV; however, as many as 1 in 6 of those people do not know they have it. With National HIV Testing Day on June 27th, we encourage you to get tested - it can take as little as 20 minutes to know your HIV status.