Ten years ago, Tasmania changed the rules around HIV disclosure.
For many years, people living with HIV in Tasmania were required by law to tell a sexual partner about their HIV status before having sex, or tell someone they shared injecting equipment with.
In 2015, Tasmania repealed the HIV/AIDS Preventive Measures Act 1993. This removed the specific HIV disclosure requirement.
Under current Tasmanian law, there is no specific requirement for a person living with HIV to disclose their status before sex. However, people who know they have a notifiable disease still have a legal responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent transmission and must not knowingly or recklessly put another person at risk.
A lot has also changed in HIV treatment and prevention.
Antiretroviral treatment (ART) can reduce HIV in the body to an undetectable level. When a person takes their treatment as prescribed and maintains an undetectable viral load, they cannot transmit HIV through sex. This is known as U=U — Undetectable equals Untransmittable.
U=U has helped change the way we understand HIV. It means people living with HIV can have healthy relationships and sex without fear of passing HIV on when they maintain an undetectable viral load.
Today, HIV prevention is about using the tools that work: testing, treatment, condoms and PrEP.
Disclosure is a personal choice. It should not be the main tool we rely on to prevent HIV. We can prevent HIV by making sure people have access to testing, treatment, PrEP, condoms and the information they need to make choices that work for them.
