National Domestic Violence Awareness Project

pozmagazine:

In the overall effort to improve the woefully inadequate rate of viral suppression in the U.S. HIV population, keeping people living with the virus in consistent medical care is of the utmost importance. Without such ongoing retention in care, people living with the virus cannot maintain their antiretroviral (ARV) treatment prescriptions. Consequently, retention rates are strongly associated with the proportion of HIV-positive individuals who have an undetectable viral load.

The urgency to increase rates of full suppression of HIV is driven by the awesome two-fold benefit of sustaining an undetectable viral load. Not only does successfully treating HIV vastly improve lifetime health prospects and life expectancy, it also blocks transmission of the virus. Countries in Africa, such as Swaziland, that have dramatically raised their viral suppression rates thanks to intensive foreign aid have seen correspondingly dramatic declines in new cases of the virus in recent years.