U=U (TaSP)

[Jim Allen]

14 years late

https://www.poz.com/blog/uu-officially-adopted-entire-us-government

“U=U” Officially Adopted by Entire U.S. Government
Although slow to acknowledge the U=U campaign initially, the U.S. government has now officially and completely adopted the message.

The United States wasn’t the only country to make the announcement at the PAC event. “The United States and Canadian governments have jointly issued a call to action to encourage all countries to incorporate U=U into their general programming.

In other news:

https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2022/gaps-uu-awareness-globally-healthcare-providers-need-do-more-get-message-out

Healthcare providers’ challenges communicating U=U
Dr Daniel Grace from the University of Toronto presented results from qualitative research conducted with sexual health practitioners in Ontario, Canada regarding how they communicate the U=U message to their service users.

Between 2020 and 2021, his team conducted three focus groups and eleven interviews with a total of 18 sexual health service providers (including nurses, public health workers, physicians, frontline providers and sexual health educators). The participants were asked questions about sexual health communication and U=U messaging. Thematic analysis revealed several barriers to communicating the U=U message. The first of these was that providers had some difficulty communicating the notion of ‘zero risk’ and some still referred to minimal or negligible risk.

Brekyln Bertozzi, a community-based researcher and activist living with HIV, told the summit about the personal impact of hearing about U=U:

“In 2011, I had a routine visit with my family doctor. During my visit, I asked him if I could still have children. His answer to me was ‘No, I wouldn’t recommend it.’ Later, I was invited to a conference on women’s health and HIV and learned that it was possible for me to have another child. Hearing those words, I was so overcome with emotion, that I had to leave the room.”