This means it is not passed on to sexual partners, and also helps to prevent transmission during pregnancy.<\/p>\n
“I remember it being referred to as the prevention revolution at the time, it was incredible evidence,” SHINE SA chief executive Holley Skene said.<\/p>\n
“For people living with HIV, that was just such brilliant, welcome, comforting, reassuring news.<\/p>\n
“For so long, the anxiety of passing on HIV potentially to your partners was overwhelming for so many people, it greatly impacted their mental health and wellbeing.”<\/p>\n
SHINE SA chief executive Holley Skene remembers ART being referred to as the prevention revolution. (ABC News: Marco Catalano)<\/p>\n
SA Health Minister Blair Boyer said the government was spending about $213,000 each year to make the treatment free, with the goal to end HIV transmission by 2030.<\/p>\n
“We don’t think people’s ability to be able to access important treatment like this for HIV should be dependent upon their bank balance,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It also promotes more people doing it so we can reduce that level of transmission and detection in the community.”<\/p>\n
ART can decrease the amount of virus to such low levels it is undetectable. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
When asked why ART had not been made free sooner, Mr Boyer said stigma could have influenced the unequal treatment of HIV compared to other medical conditions.<\/p>\n
“It’s a really sad thing I think that \u2026 government might have felt like they wouldn’t be providing taxpayer money towards the free access to medication, because of the stigma that comes along with HIV,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think that’s right and I’m proud that this government has moved away from that thinking.”<\/p>\n
Blair Boyer says he is proud to have been part of the change in approach. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n
The free treatment has been welcomed by HIV advocates like Ms Leane, who is also the president of Positive Life SA.<\/p>\n
However, she said the majority of HIV-positive people were aged over 50 and preferred to get their medication from their local pharmacies.<\/p>\n
“When [ART] was first an option, people said, ‘I’m not going to a pharmacy near where I live and have all the neighbourhood knowing all my business’, but people and the chemists have been really creative with ensuring people’s privacy and confidentiality,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
she said.<\/p>\n
“We can’t [take it to a community pharmacy] at the moment, but within 12 months, they hope to address that so you can take it wherever you like.”<\/p>\n
![\"Katherine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f1c1942021d1b26423ac2a17fb9cb311.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Kath Leane was given just 12 months to live when she was first diagnosed in 1987. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Ms Leane is hopeful free medication will help reduce stigma and educate the broader community about HIV transmission and treatment.<\/p>\n
“Undetectable equals untransmissible, and I am desperate to get that message out into the mainstream,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m so lucky because most of the joy in my life now comes from my relationship with my three grandchildren.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t expect that to happen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Kath Leane was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, she was given just 12 months to live. “My…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[274],"tags":[47557,240113,595,18,6282,135,575,19,17,240112,462,96,240114,94,240109,240110,240111],"class_list":["post-562309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-antiretroviral","tag-antiretroviral-treatment","tag-art","tag-eire","tag-free","tag-health","tag-hiv","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katherine-leane","tag-medication","tag-medicine","tag-meds","tag-treatment","tag-uu","tag-undetectable","tag-untransmittable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116841296738442494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e14e399439bebee1f70dc5c4ba3cc77f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Boxes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20032647c7657b5f91444b2ee93ab4e3.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"SHINE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/528b96b8cb16c2f10c6ef0de08ad637e.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Blair](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0ee4c6036b32d25d555af83a5699d29a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n