Your provider can help you get back on track and discuss the best strategies to prevent transmitting HIV to your sexual partners until your viral load is confirmed to be undetectable again. If you have stopped taking your HIV medicine or are having trouble taking all the doses as prescribed, talk to your health care provider as soon as possible. This could weaken your immune system, and you could become sick. If you skip doses of your HIV medicine, even now and then, you give HIV the chance to multiply rapidly.
HIV treatment is not a cure and HIV is still in your body, even when your viral load is undetectable, so you need to keep taking your HIV medicine as prescribed. People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex. There is also a major prevention benefit. People with HIV who know their status, take HIV medicine as prescribed, and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives. There are important health benefits to getting the viral load as low as possible. Many will bring their viral load to an undetectable level very quickly, but it could take more time for a small portion of people just starting HIV medicine. Almost everyone who takes HIV medicine as prescribed can achieve an undetectable viral load, usually within 6 months after starting treatment. This is called having an undetectable viral load. HIV medicine can also make your viral load so low that a standard lab test can’t detect it. This is called viral suppression, defined as 200 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood. If taken as prescribed, HIV medicine reduces the amount of HIV in your blood (also called your viral load) to a very low level, which keeps your immune system working and prevents illness. Long-acting injections of HIV medicine, given every two months, are also available if your health care provider determines that you meet certain requirements. Many people with HIV take two or more different HIV medicines combined in one pill. A person's initial HIV treatment regimen generally includes three HIV medicines from at least two different HIV drug classes that must be taken every day. People on HIV treatment take a combination of HIV medicines (called an HIV treatment regimen). HIV medicine is recommended for everyone with HIV, and people with HIV should start HIV medicine as soon as possible after diagnosis, even on that same day. HIV treatment involves taking highly effective medicine that reduces the amount of HIV in your body. Taking HIV Medicine to Stay Healthy and Prevent Transmission TasP works when a person with HIV takes HIV medicine exactly as prescribed and has regular follow-up care, including routine viral load tests to ensure their viral load stays undetectable. This is sometimes called undetectable = untransmittable (U=U). People with HIV who take HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load-a very low level of HIV in the blood-can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex. It is one of the most highly effective options for preventing HIV transmission.
Treatment as Prevention (TasP) refers to taking HIV medicine to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.