I'd LOVE to tell all my negative fuckbuddies that we can ditch the glove and really feel the love. I haven't read the study yet, so I'm jumping in half-cocked and hopeful, but if it's true, I'm going to celebrate. My viral load's been pretty consistently undetectable for almost 12 years. For now, I'll proceed with caution until more information is available, but there are a lot of people and organizations that depend on keeping us afraid for their own agendas. Wouldn't it be great not to feel like a diseased pariah anymore, just a plain old pariah?

Mine stays wrapped too.

Of the body fluids that have sufficient viral load to transmit HIV, blood has the highest. So load count in the blood stream will be the most accurate. The virus does hang out in organs, but if it is in the organs and not the blood or semen, at time of fluid exchange then that virus copy does not leave the body of the person carrying it.

The HIV virus does not fluctuate in amount within a 24 hour period as does the CD4 count. It can increase in times of illness. Where there is an infection there will be a higher concentration of the HIV virus, cause the virus is looking for white blood cells and there will be a high concentration of white blood cells present at the sight of an infection. This is why STDs increase the risk of transmission.

There has been a study done in SF, looking at cross infection between 2 positives, and in their large study they had not cross infection. They reviewed the small handful of cross infections that are known around the world to see how they differed from those in the study, as well as what these know cases had in common, and what they found was that cross infection happened within the 1st year of a persons infection. The conclusion of the SF study was that after 3 years of having the virus a persons own immune system has been able to keep the virus in check, if a new virus enters the body, that immune system attacks it and prevents it from taking hold.

As for undetectable viral load, they may be on to something there. This is a very weak virus, and a person's immune system can effectively kill the invading virus before it is able to replicate. Then a person does not become positive. (We all know someone who was exposed to HIV and never tested positive.) The fewer number of virus being transmitted give the immune system a better chance to effectively defeating the virus.

In addition, all studies show that infection is happening from those individuals who are with in and up to that first year of infection. This is true for many reasons. Many may still believe they are negative because their last HIV test said they were. That test may not capture that person's HIV status for various reasons (they are within the window period, they were exposed after they were tested, etc...). Also at this time a person is most infectious because this is when the virus is replicating at an extreme rate. The other period of time when the virus is replicating at an extreme rate is in the later stages of a person' s infection and they have scummed to illness.

There is no guarantee either way, that transmission and infection will happen or that it will not happen. There is a continuum of risk when HIV is present. This risk is from very low to very high, but there is not 100%.

It is up to everyone involved to determine how much risk they are or are not willing to take.

Tommie Barnes
I worked as an HIV Test Counselor, HIV/STD Educator, and Assistant program coordinator within the field of HIV/STD prevention education, from 2004 - 2007.
I am now working as a Spiritual Counselor, myauthenticself.com