Safe Sex Still Needed After HIV Is Regulated.

• Position: Brief Article

Patients whose HIV has been regulated with an array of new medications still need to practice safe sex habits to protect their partners, warns Andrew Zolopa, director of the Stanford (Calif.) Hospital and Clinics' Positive Care Clinic. "Even people with HIV who are symptom-free and are living active lives almost always retain small amounts of the virus in their blood or semen, and under the right--or wrong--circumstances can transfer the virus to a partner during unprotected sex."

He points out that many otherwise sophisticated and well-informed patients are unaware that, even though their immune systems are functioning and their levels of immunity-producing T cells are at normal levels, small amounts of HIV virus may be lurking in blood or semen and can be spread to a partner. Patients undergoing successful treatment also run the risk of complicating their situations if they are...