Treatment for HIV (in the USA) has advanced to the point that those people who receive and participate in appropriate drug therapy will have viral loads that are not detectable and the risk of infecting a sexual partner are close to zero even if safe sex practices are not followed.

Lay websites and forums on HIV, just as is the case regarding countless other issues, medical and otherwise, are full of anecdotal and uniformed 'information' some of which is accidentally accurate and some of which is not. It takes a significant amount of lay research skill to suss out the medical research sites and to then understand what one is reading, or to feel empowered enough to question one's medical providers to comprehend the research findings. Would be great if some of the infectious disease clinics at the forefront of treating hiv would launch good websites geared to the lay community about such things as the risk of transmitting hiv when one's viral load is undetectable. I suspect one reason this hasn't happened, and I understand this, is that treatment for hiv is very expensive and it should never be considered to be an incidental infection that doesn't matter "as long as you stay on your meds." The effective social engineering hasn't been worked out yet with regard to the message in terms of public health - so fear is the default public health message in terms of prevention.



Still not a good idea to not practice safe sex since one can never really know if a partner may have HIV and not yet know it, or may be some one who forgets to keep medical appointments or to take medications on time.