Location:
Berg Family Foundation Seminar Room, Level 6, Wallace Wurth Building, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney
Cost
Free
Contact for enquiries
Rata Joseph, +61 (2) 9385 0900 or recpt@kirby.unsw.edu.au
Kirby Institute Seminar Series presents
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Research Fellow, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute |
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James Gray Associate Director, Policy Strategy and Research, ACON and PhD Student, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute |
About your speakers
Dr Benjamin Bavinton has worked in the field of HIV prevention and research for nearly 15 years in Australia and internationally. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Kirby Institute and was project leader of the Opposites Attract Study. The focus of his research is the sociobehavioural and epidemiological aspects of HIV prevention among gay and bisexual men in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
James Gray is the Associate Director of Policy Strategy and Research at ACON and a PhD Student in the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute.
Abstract
Prospective data on the association of HIV transmission and HIV treatment/undetectable viral load in homosexual male HIV-serodiscordant couples are limited. In this seminar, we report the final results from the Opposites Attract cohort study of male serodiscordant couples in Australia, Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro, recently presented for the first time at the International AIDS Society conference in Paris, France. In the primary endpoint analysis of 343 couples and 591 couple-years of follow-up, there were no phylogenetically-linked within-couple transmissions despite nearly 17,000 reported acts of condomless anal intercourse. Our results provide strong support for the hypothesis that undetectable viral load prevents HIV transmission in homosexual men. We will also explore the impacts these findings on community-based HIV education in NSW.