We hope you saw some of the positive messages about U=U across our social media accounts at the end of October - MASSIVE thanks to everyone who liked, tweeted, retweeted and shared them!
In 2019, it was estimated that there were 105,200 people living with HIV in the UK. 94% of these people were diagnosed, and therefore know that they have HIV. This means that around 1 in 16 people living with HIV in the UK do not know that they have the virus. 98% of people diagnosed with HIV in the UK are on treatment, and 97% of those on treatment are virally suppressed which means they can’t pass the virus on. Of all the people living with HIV in the UK, 89% are virally suppressed.
In the UK we now have medications that can treat HIV, which allows people to live a near normal life expectancy, which is so different to the life expectancy people were told in the 80’s and early 90’s, but still today there is a lot of ignorance, stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV.
If a person adheres to HIV medication, the virus in the blood reduces to undetectable levels. We can now say with complete confidence that people, living with HIV and on effective treatment, can no longer pass on HIV to others, even when sex is unprotected. This is called U=U which stands for Undetectable = Untransmittable.
For anyone who hasn't seen them yet, check out the fantastic videos below - some of our community talking about what U=U means to them...