According to statistics, each year the number of people in the United States who contract HIV remains virtually unchanged at 50,000. Now, recent findings published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine explain why this happens.

Simply stated, these findings show that more than half of people living with HIV in the United States have been diagnosed with the virus. But many of these folks don’t get into care and on treatment with antiretroviral medicines that would lower the amount of virus in their bodies and reduce the chance they’ll transmit HIV to others.

Researchers estimate that more than 60 percent of those in this group account for the largest number of new transmissions. What this means is that if more people who are diagnosed with HIV could get into care and treatment, then fewer folks would acquire the virus, and these straightforward interventions “would have a substantial effect on HIV transmission in the United States,” scientists conclude.

How about that? Despite the complexity of the virus, reducing HIV transmission really isn’t rocket science.