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HIV




What is HIV?
HIV stands for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV attacks the body’s immune system - the body’s defence against diseases. HIV, if detected early, can be treated very successfully. With treatment, people living with HIV will probably have a normal lifespan, although serious health problems may still occur.

What is AIDS?
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A person is considered to have AIDS when the immune system has become so weak that it can no longer fight off a whole range of diseases with which it would normally cope. If HIV is diagnosed late, treatment may be less effective in preventing AIDS.

How is HIV passed on?
HIV is not transmitted via casual contact or kissing. It can only be passed on through exposure to HIV-infected blood, sexual or rectal fluids, or breast milk.

The most common ways are via:
* Sexual intercourse with an infected partner where blood or sexual fluids like semen and vaginal or rectal secretions enter the body through the penis, vagina or anus.
* Sharing infected needles or syringes when injecting drugs.
* From an HIV positive mother to her child during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding. However, there are proven steps mothers can take to reduce the possibility of their unborn child contracting HIV.

Less common ways are via:
* Oral sex - although the risks are much lower than with sexual intercourse, blood or sexual fluids may occasionally enter the body via the mouth, particularly if the uninfected partner has gum problems or mouth ulcers.
* Unscreened and untreated transfusions of blood or blood products. However, in the UK all blood products are screened for HIV and other blood-borne diseases.
* An accident in a medical setting, where a healthcare worker is exposed to the blood of an infected person, usually during surgery or via a needlestick injury.

You cannot get HIV from day-to-day contact such as:
Kissing
Touching
Holding hands
Sharing eating utensils
Toilet seats
Swimming pools



How to prevent HIV
HIV is not transmitted via casual contact or kissing. It can only be passed on through exposure to HIV-infected blood, sexual or rectal fluids, or breast milk.

Safer sex
The best way to protect yourself and your sexual partner from HIV is by consistent and proper use of condoms. Condoms are the only form of contraception that will protect you from HIV and must be used with care if they are to be most effective. It can take only a single episode of unprotected sex (for example not using a condom or a condom splitting) with an infected partner for HIV to be passed on. However, HIV is not always passed on the first time, so it's never too late to start practising safer sex.

If you have been exposed to HIV
Post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is available in the UK under strict prescribing guidelines to people who might have been exposed to HIV during sex. PEP is a course of anti-HIV medication that needs to be taken daily over the course of a month. For the treatment to be effective it needs to start within 72 hours of exposure. It can cause severe side effects such as diarrhoea, nausea and prolonged headaches. Find out more about PEP, whether you are eligible and how to get it.

Injecting drug use
Using clean needles will prevent the risk of infection through injecting drug use. Find out more about needle exchanges.

Mother to baby transmission
As an HIV positive mother, the risk of passing on HIV to your baby is as low as 1% if you are on anti-retroviral therapy, have a caesarean birth and do not breast feed.


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