Updated February 2021

Undetectable = Untransmittable

Fact: A person living with HIV who is on treatment and has an undetectable viral load cannot transmit HIV through sex.

In other words, Undetectable = Untransmittable, or U=U

Celebrate Love U=U

Moses Supercharger with

the Stigmaless Band

Kampala, Uganda

Click on the photos to scroll through examples of Community Partner U=U campaigns.

A customizable social marketing campaign to educate about U=U and encourage engagement in care. 

What is U=U?

Prevention Access Campaign and a community of people living with HIV collaborated with the leading researchers on HIV sexual transmission to answer a fundamental question about living with HIV and having an undetectable viral load: Will I pass on HIV to my sexual partner?  

The science is clear. People living with HIV can feel confident that if they have an undetectable viral load and take their medications as prescribed, they cannot pass on HIV to sexual partners (Undetectable = Untransmittable U=U).

U=U offers freedom and hope. For many people living with HIV and their partners, U=U opens up social, sexual, and reproductive choices they never thought would be possible. It is an unprecedented opportunity to transform the lives of people with HIV and the field:

• Well-being of people with HIV: Transforms the social, sexual, and reproductive lives of people with HIV by freeing them from the shame and fear of sexual transmission to their partners.

• HIV stigma: Dismantles the HIV stigma that has been destroying lives and impeding progress in the field since the beginning of the epidemic.

• Treatment goals: Reduces the anxiety associated with testing, and encourages people living with HIV to start and stay on treatment to stay healthy and prevent transmission.

• Universal access: Offers a public health argument to increase access and remove barriers to treatment, care, and diagnostics to save lives and prevent new transmissions.

However, the majority of millions of people living with HIV do not know U=U, and many do not have access to the diagnostics, treatment, and care they need to achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load. There are still confusing messages, outdated websites, and uninformed policymakers and healthcare workers who are not comfortable sharing this information, don't yet know about it, or don't yet realize the significance of it. 

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A January 2021 article in POZ Magazine cited a CDC model that shows "allocating more money to make sure every U.S. resident living with HIV achieves and maintains an undetectable viral load, rather than focusing on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), could slash new HIV cases by 94% by 2027." U=U is a foundational component of being able to end the HIV epidemic.

Prevention Access Campaign's U=U campaign has grown into a global movement of activists, researchers, and Community Partners that are changing what it means to live with HIV by ensuring the groundbreaking science reaches the people it was intended to benefit.

NOTE: An undetectable viral load is typically under 40 copies/ml depending on the diagnostic tests. However, studies show a person living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with a viral load of under 200 copies/ml also cannot sexually transmit HIV. This is called being "virally suppressed." For the purposes of the U=U campaign and any Prevention Access Campaign materials, the term “undetectable” is used synonymously with the term “virally suppressed,” meaning a person living with HIV with a viral load of under 200 copies/ml cannot transmit HIV. 

What if my viral load is not undetectable? Viral load does not equal Value 

People living with HIV are more than just their lab results, and value isn't dictated by viral load. No one living with HIV is a danger.  If you are living with HIV and you have a detectable viral load, there are highly effective HIV prevention options for safer sex including condoms, and in some parts of the world, PrEP for your HIV-negative partners, which can be used individually or in combination. Everyone living with HIV regardless of viral load can have full and healthy social, sexual, and reproductive lives. 

Talk with your medical provider about the options available to you for your health and the health of your partners. For more information, see The Third U=Universal.

We invite you to take part in the movement and the message! 

• Become a U=U Community Partner - Join the growing global movement of over 1,000 organizations from 102 countries that have pledged to share the U=U message in ways that work for their communities. To sign up your organization, please visit PAC's Community Partner page.

• Join U=U on Social Media - Healthline, one of the fastest growing consumer health information websites (more than 65 million monthly visitors), honored the U=U campaign as 2017 "Best HIV Patient Advocacy Organization,” and 2016 "Best Use of Social Media in HIV Advocacy" thanks to our strong global U=U social network. Please join the U=U Facebook Group, follow U=U on Twitter, use the hashtag #UequalsU to take part in the message and movement. 

• Keep Your Eyes Open - If you see potential inaccuracies, HIV stigma, or bias related to HIV prevention in the media, please let us know.

• Write about U=U - The U=U campaign was awarded the #1 blog of 2016 by POZ.com, and received extensive coverage in a wide range of mainstream media outlets including CBS Evening News, The Washington Post, CNN, China Global Television, CBC Canada, US News & World Report, Newsweek, Reuters, and Medical Brief - Africa's Medical Media Digest.  Get in touch with us if you'd like to share your story on the U=U blog. 

• Donate - U=U was launched almost entirely by volunteers in the first two years of the campaign. Please support the message and the movement that is changing what it means to live with HIV.  Thank you! ​

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Downloadable U=U summaries & source documents 

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U=U Resources, Fact Sheets, Infographics, Music, Videos, and  More...

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U=U Resources, Fact Sheets, Infographics, Music, Videos, and  More...

Thank you to the researchers who have been an integral part of the U=U movement long before there was a campaign: 

Thank you to the researchers who drafted the U=U consensus statement in 2016, launching the U=U movement: Dr. Myron Cohen, Dr. Andrew Grulich, Dr. Jens Lundgren, and Dr. Pietro Vernazza.  Thank you to the pioneering Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis (NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene) and Dr. Michael Brady (Terrence Higgins Trust), the first public health official and medical director to endorse U=U and ignite the movement in the U.S. and UK. 

Thank you to our esteemed colleagues at the U.S. federal health departments for their thoughtful and timely review of the science and meaningful engagement in the process: Dr. Richard Wolitski, Dr. Jonathan Mermin, Dr. Eugene McCray, Dr. David Purcell, Dr. John Brooks and teams. 

We are tremendously grateful for the global leadership of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Carl Dieffenbach at NIAID who spoke out unequivocally in support of U=U in advance of the U.S federal health departments and most of the world.  Thank you to Anne Rancourt and the team at NIAID who provided invaluable strategic and communications advice as well as critical communications tools since the beginning of the campaign when most of the world was silent.  Thank you to Dr. Maureen M. Goodenow for declaring the NIH Office of AIDS Research's unequivocal support of U=U.

Thank you to Dr. Alison Rodger and the PARTNER executive committee for your extraordinary groundbreaking work and for going out of your way to support and pay tribute to U=U and Prevention Access Campaign in your press release and presentations at AIDS 2018 and your ongoing work.  Thank you to Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker for leading the International AIDS Society to support U=U. 

Special thank you to the pioneering Dr. Julio Montaner for developing the concept of Treatment as Prevention (TasP) the foundation upon which U=U is based.  We are tremendously grateful to Dr. Pietro Vernazza, the author of the groundbreaking Swiss Statement, for his bold advocacy to greatly improve the lives of people living with HIV. Dr. Vernazza and the Swiss Statement are finally being vindicated today. 

Thank you to the thousands of participants in the studies dating back to 1998.  Your courage and commitment have forever transformed lives and the field.