Tag: Prevention | Page 3

How effective are HIV prevention methods?

October 27, 2015 • By Laurel Challacombe

Three decades of awareness campaigns have instilled a very clear and consistent message to the public: condoms are the most effective way to prevent an HIV infection. So what happens when a new prevention method emerges – and it is also highly effective? In recent years, multiple studies have confirmed that maintaining an undetectable viral load through the consistent and correct use of antiretroviral treatment (ART) by people living with HIV dramatically reduces the risk of HIV transmission. The reduction is so great that ART can now be offered as a highly effective HIV prevention option.

“Unprotected” or “condomless”: Upgrading our HIV terminology

June 16, 2015 • By James Wilton

What do you call sex without a condom? Unprotected? Only a few years ago, you might have been correct. But a growing consensus of HIV prevention experts is shifting away from this terminology to something more accurate and more simple: sex without a condom, or condomless sex. Why? Our understanding of HIV transmission and prevention has changed dramatically in the past decade, and with it have come new words and terms. Post- and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP and PrEP). Undetectable viral load. Treatment as prevention.

Program science: Taking the guesswork out of prevention

February 2, 2015 • By Zak Knowles

For those of us who work in HIV and Hep C prevention, the advent of new prevention approaches has made us increasingly dependent on evidence for making informed decisions about the best strategies to use with a particular client or community.