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<p>So, just for the sake of emphasis from a preceding post regarding our perception of what it means to be HIV infected, as well as its ensuing implications.<br><br>We do find a way to count the number of actual virus in an infected person who is on medication as a way of monitoring. It stands to reason then to say that the better a patient is doing on medication, the lower will be the number of counted viruses in the blood! It gets even better in the sense that treatment is so effective that we may be unable to detect a single viral particle in the blood... A state known as being undetectable! It should be noted that this is not same as being cured.<br><br>So what is the hullabaloo about being UNDETECTABLE?<br><br>...Everything! And I mean everything!<br><br>Simply put, anyone who through proper treatment, has attained the status of being UNDETECTABLE is practically incapable of transmitting the virus to anyone else! That is truly a very big deal! Life practically returns to normal for the person involved (yeah, he/she is still HIV positive, and must continue treatment) ...it is a life of no worries about infecting sexual and non-sexual contacts, or transmissions from mother to baby during pregnancy and/or breastfeeding! It challenges the rational for stigma/persecution in the first place. This also goes a long in limiting further spread of the pandemic as transmissions are very, very much reduced! The HIV infected person is suddenly, for all intents and purposes, no different from anyone else! It's actually pretty awesome when you think about it!<br><br>Again I'd point out that these rays of light shine only on those who first of have been tested and thus are aware of and accepted their status(es) as well as those who have agreed to commence and be committed to treatment which is free at great cost to donors.<br><br>We're unfortunately still steeped in persisting unawareness to a large extent, and I'd hope we'd do our bit to spread the word, and further chip away at the stubborn unfair stigma and persecution of people who live with HIV.<br><br>#gettestedtoday<br>#stopthestigma</p>
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