CDC's Roybal campus in Atlanta, Georgia. CDC has said that people living with HIV/AIDS and adhering to prescribed treatment cannot infect their healthy partners. [Photo: wikipedia.org] People living with HIV/AIDS and adhering to their medical procedures cannot transmit the virus, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said.The centre said that clinical trials have shown that those who have suppressed their viral load as a result of medication cannot infect their sexual partners.The announcement comes as a big win to discordant couples and other HIV positive people who have often been stigmatised by the society.CDC declaration was published on the centre's website during theNational Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on September 27CDC directors Eugene McCray and Jonathan Mermin said they hoped the declaration will reduce the stigma that HIV-positive people face."When Anti-Retroviral Therapy results in viral suppression, defined as less than 200 copies/ml or undetectable levels, it prevents sexual HIV transmission. We also have strong evidence of the prevention effectiveness of ART," McCray said, as the Star quotes.After trials including thousands of couples and many acts of sex without a condom or pre-exposure prophylaxis, the global health body noted that no HIV transmissions to an HIV-negative partner were observed when the HIV-positive person was virally suppressed."This means that people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner," CDC says.Medics lauded the announcement saying it will help in ensuring that HIV positive people adhere to treatment in order to achieve a low viral load.They have however warned that they need to continue with other preventive measures of reducing HIV infections.

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