A person living with HIV who is taking effective antiretroviral therapy will have a viral load that becomes so low, it is undetectable (less than 50 copies of virus per milliliter).
[5] The correct use of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis ) can dramatically reduce the chances of transmission for both sexual contact and intravenous drug users.
In many English-speaking countries and in most of the states who have signed the European Convention of Human Rights,[7] knowingly infecting others with HIV can lead to criminal prosecution.
One such case is that of Thomas Guerra, an American landscape architect, who became the first person in the state of California to be convicted for intentionally infecting another individual with HIV.
[citation needed] The New South Wales (NSW) Public Health Act from 2010 regulates under section 79 that a person with HIV must disclose their status to all sexual partners.
If talking about the problems of practising safe sex does not help, the doctor may obtain a Public Health Order to manage the behaviour of the HIV positive person.
[citation needed] Only a small number of sex workers and clients have received a Public Health Order or 'management' intervention for potentially breaking the law.
The Court's ruling caused difficulty because even though it only concerned non-disclosure of HIV-positive status in sexual situations, it unanimously rejected the English authority of R. v Clarence, with L'Heureux-Dubé stating that any fraud could vitiate consent to all types of assault because the autonomy and physical integrity of the person has been violated.
After being diagnosed with HIV in 2004, Clato Mabior underwent aggressive antiretroviral therapy and was adhering to treatment at the time of pursuing sexual relations with multiple partners between 2004 and 2006.
The Court's vague justification for serostatus disclosure under circumstances that lead to "significant risk of bodily harm" remained a particularly contentious issue in the aftermath of Cuerrier.
Because Cuerrier did not expressly define "significant risk", lower courts inconsistently criminalized HIV-positive defendants based on varied interpretations of the clause.
In Mabior, the Court found that "significant risk of bodily harm is negated if (i) the accused's viral load at the time of sexual relations was low or undetectable, and (ii) condom protection was used."
[32] In the Federal Republic of Germany on 16 August 2010, Nadja Benaissa of the German pop music group No Angels admitted to sex with several men while knowing her HIV-positive status, and infecting one of those several,[clarification needed] who subsequently brought the case against her.
[33] In 1995, Catholic priest Michael Kennedy alleged in his Sunday sermon in Dungarvan that a woman from London had deliberately infected numerous local men with HIV.
Tribunals of inquiry criticised decisions by the Blood Transfusion Service Board and National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, but no criminal charges were made.
[citation needed] On 24 July 2007, the five medics and the doctor were extradited to Bulgaria, where their sentences were commuted by the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov and they were freed.
[citation needed] Furthermore, a controversy has arisen concerning the terms of release, which allegedly include an arms trade as well as a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in July 2007.
[47] On 6 October 2005 a New Zealand District Court ruled that HIV-positive people need not tell sexual partners about their status so long as safe sex is practiced.
"[citation needed] The trial set for 2010 did not proceed as Glenn Mills, accused of knowingly exposing fourteen young people to HIV, was found dead in his Mt Eden remand prison cell on 30 November 2009 after having made two unsuccessful applications to be released on bail in prior weeks.
As of 19 June 2006, there had been seven convictions for the sexual transmission of HIV in England and Wales under s.20 of the 1861 Act which, inter alia, criminalizes the reckless inflicting of grievous bodily harm.
The first, from Cardiff, was jailed for 2 years;[61] the second, Sarah Jane Porter, was convicted of grievous bodily harm through the reckless transmission of HIV, and was sentenced to 32 months in prison in June 2006.
[62] The National AIDS Trust has published a table of cases of people in England and Wales charged with reckless sexual transmission of HIV.
[citation needed] Although it cannot prove the route and timing of transmission, phylogenetic analysis has been used in many trials to demonstrate how closely related HIV strains in samples taken from the defendant and complainant are.
[70] Presentations from the Economic and Social Research Council funded 2011 seminar series "HIV/AIDS and Law: Theory, Practice and Policy" at Keele University deal with the question of criminalization.
[71] In February 2001 Stephen Kelly, an ex-prisoner and former IV drug user, was convicted of the Scots common law offence of "recklessly injuring" his former partner by infecting her with HIV.
[79] The REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act calls for review of all federal and state laws, policies, and regulations regarding the criminal prosecution of individuals for HIV-related offenses.
For example, on 23 February 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces reversed the aggravated assault conviction of Technical Sergeant David Gutierrez upon determining, that the risk of HIV transmission through sexual intercourse was not "likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm" under the applicable statute.
[82] As of 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that those who have undetectable levels of HIV in their blood cannot transmit the virus, but only when they are compliant with treatment.
[88] There is also a higher proportion of women and indigenous people involved in cases based on low levels of blameworthiness (i.e. difficult life circumstance, spontaneous sexual acts, compliance with authorities, condom use, and evidence that the accused was abused by the complainant).
[18] South Africa's openly HIV-positive Supreme Court Justice Edwin Cameron argued against criminalisation at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.