How To Not Get Hiv

Ask Every Partner Before Having Sex Whether They Have Hiv

Communication is crucial. Before having sex with someone for the first time, make sure both of you have been tested recently for sexually transmitted infections , including HIV and other viruses. If your sexual partner is HIV positive, medications are available that can lower the risk that they will transmit the virus to you.

Does Pep Cause Side Effects

Some people taking PEP may have side effects, like nausea. The side effects are usually not serious and often get better over time. If you are taking PEP, tell your health care provider if you have a side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

PEP medicines may also interact with other medicines that a person is taking . So it’s important to tell your health care provider about any other medicines that you take.

Can I Take Pep Every Time I Have Unprotected Sex

PEP is only for emergency situations. It is not the right choice for people who may be exposed to HIV frequently – for example, if you often have sex without a condom with a partner who is HIV-positive. In that case, you should talk to your health care provider about whether PrEP would be right for you.

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How Well Does Prep Work

PrEP is very effective when you take it every day. It reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90%. In people who inject drugs, it reduces the risk of HIV by more than 70%. PrEP is much less effective if you do not take it consistently.

PrEP does not protect against other STDs, so you should still use latex condoms every time you have sex. If your or your partner is allergic to latex, you can use polyurethane condoms.

You must have an HIV test every 3 months while taking PrEP, so you’ll have regular follow-up visits with your health care provider. If you are having trouble taking PrEP every day or if you want to stop taking PrEP, talk to your health care provider.

I Am Hiv Positive How Can I Prevent Passing Hiv To Others

Take HIV medicines daily. Treatment with HIV medicines helps people with HIV live longer, healthier lives. ART can’t cure HIV, but it can reduce the amount of HIV in the body . One of the main goals of ART is to reduce a person’s viral load to an undetectable level. An undetectable viral load means that the level of HIV in the blood is too low to be detected by a viral load test. People with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.

Here are some other steps you can take to prevent HIV transmission:

• Use condoms correctly every time you have sex.
• Talk to your partner about taking PrEP.
• If you inject drugs, don’t share your needles, syringes, or other drug equipment with your partner.

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What Are The Most Effective Ways To Prevent Hiv

There are many ways to prevent HIV. Some of these options help to prevent HIV during sex and some help when using drugs. Some help in both situations.

Sometimes you might rely on just one strategy, and other times you might use more than one.

Have a look through the options that are available and think about what methods might work best for you and in which situations.

Caring For An Hiv+ Family Member Or Friend

HIV cannot penetrate healthy skin. In order for it to enter the body, there must be a break in the skin. As a safeguard against contact with blood or body fluids, a person providing care for bleeding wounds should wear disposable gloves. This is a precautionary measure to ensure that the person is not exposed to the virus through tiny cuts in the hands that may be unnoticed.

The infected person should reserve a thermometer for personal use. It should be washed with warm soapy water after each use, soaked in rubbing alcohol for 10 minutes, dried and stored.

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What Should I Tell My Healthcare Provider Before Taking Truvada For Prep

• All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis.
• If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, tell your healthcare provider.
• If you are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you think you may have recently become infected with HIV. HIV can be passed to the baby in breast milk. Talk to your healthcare provider about the risks and benefits of breastfeeding while taking TRUVADA for PrEP.
• All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.
• If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include certain medicines to treat hepatitis B or C infection.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call .1-800-FDA-1088.

Managing Illness As A Parent

Although medical advances now allow people with HIV to live full, healthy lives, you may have times where you or your partner is unwell or needs medical care.

As with any longer-term illness, this can impact on your ability to earn an income, manage a household or raise children.

Living with chronic illness can be a challenge and sometimes families need extra support. Trying to sort things out on your own can make life seem overwhelming. Dont be afraid to ask for help from expert organisations that support people with HIV.

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Protect Yourself From Hiv/aids

HIV and AIDS in South Carolina

• In South Carolina, almost 15,000 of your neighbors including about 200 children and teens are living with HIV infection or AIDS.
• Throughout the United States, more than 1 million residents are living with HIV or AIDS, and nearly one-fifth do not know they have it.
• Each year, more than 56,000 new cases are diagnosed. An estimated 600,000 U.S. citizens have already died from the virus.*
• Worldwide, more than 60 million people, including millions of children, have been infected since the early 1980s. As many as 25 million people have died from AIDS.**

*U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.** Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

What Are The Symptoms Of Hiv

Many people do not notice symptoms when they first acquire HIV. It can take as little as a few weeks for minor, flu-like symptoms to show up, or more than 10 years for more serious symptoms to appear, or any time in between. Signs of early HIV infection include flu-like symptoms such as headache, muscle aches, swollen glands, sore throat, fevers, chills, and sweating, and can also include a rash or mouth ulcers. Symptoms of later-stage HIV or AIDS include swollen glands, lack of energy, loss of appetite, weight loss, chronic or recurrent diarrhea, repeated yeast infections, short-term memory loss, and blotchy lesions on the skin, inside the mouth, eyelids, nose, or genital area.

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Can Hiv Be Prevented

To reduce the risk of getting HIV, people who are sexually active should:

• use a condom every time they have sex
• get tested for HIV and make sure all partners do too
• reduce their number of sexual partners
• get tested and treated for STDs having an STD increases the risk of HIV infection
• consider taking a medicine every day if they are at very high risk of getting infected

For everyone:

• Do not inject drugs or share any kind of needle.
• Do not share razors or other personal objects that may touch blood.
• Do not touch anyone else’s blood from a cut or sore.

Theoretical And Empirical Basis For Protection

Condoms can be expected to provide different levels of protection for various STIs, depending on differences in how the diseases or infections are transmitted. Male condoms may not cover all infected areas or areas that could become infected. Thus, they are likely to provide greater protection against STIs that are transmitted only by genital fluids than against infections that are transmitted primarily by skin-to-skin contact, which may or may not infect areas covered by a condom .

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How Is Hiv Diagnosed

A doctor may suspect HIV if symptoms last and no other cause can be found.

If you have been exposed to HIV, your immune system will make antibodies to try to destroy the virus. Doctors use tests to find these HIV antibodies or antigens in urine, saliva, or blood.

If a test on urine or saliva shows that you are infected with HIV, you will probably have a blood test to confirm the results.

Most doctors use a blood test to diagnose HIV infection. If the test is positive , a test to detect HIV DNA or RNA will be done to be sure.

HIV antibodies may show up in the blood as early as 2 to 4 weeks after contact but can also take as long as 3 to 6 months to show up in the blood. If you think you have been exposed to HIV but you test negative for it:

• Get tested again. A repeat test can be done after a few weeks to be sure you are not infected.
• Meanwhile, take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, in case you do have it.

You can get HIV testing in most doctors offices, public health units, hospitals, and HIV care clinics.

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What If My Baby Is Hiv

With excellent health care, the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate is almost zero.

In the very rare case, your baby is HIV-positive, there are many supportive professionals and organisations that can help you during this difficult time.

You can expect welcoming, non-judgemental and compassionate care for yourself and your baby.

Medical care for babies with HIV is highly specialised. Early diagnosis means that a baby can begin effective treatment and have every chance for a long, healthy life.

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Should I Get Vaccines If I Have Hiv/aids

Check with your healthcare provider. Certain vaccines are generally recommended, including:

• Influenza vaccine.
• Human papillomavirus vaccine if you are age 26 or younger.
• Meningococcal series of shots.
• Pneumonia vaccine.
• Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, with a repeat every 10 years of the tetanus/diphtheria vaccine.

You should probably avoid live vaccines, such as the ones for chickenpox and measles, mumps and rubella . This is true especially if your CD4 numbers are 200 or lower. Make sure you discuss vaccine questions with your healthcare provider.

HIV can affect how well the vaccine works. It can also make your viral load increase for a time because your immune system is stimulated by the vaccine.

Hiv And Getting Pregnant

If you are HIV-positive and become pregnant, or would like to have a baby, it is strongly recommended that you talk to specialists.

If you live in Victoria, The Victorian HIV Service at the Alfred Hospital and the Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at the Royal Womens Hospital can provide you with more information.

At the Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at the Royal Womens Hospital you can discuss your options with doctors who specialise in HIV and reproductive health.

This clinic specialises in helping serodiscordant couples to conceive safely.

Timing of sex to coincide with ovulation can be discussed with a healthcare provider to increase your chances of getting pregnant while reducing the risk of passing on the virus.

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What Prevention Method Are You Most Likely To Use

As you consider your options, think about which method you will be most likely to use. You can use different methods based on your needs in different situations. You should also consider whether or not you can use a prevention method the right way every time, because a prevention method will only work when you use it correctly.

The method you decide to use may also depend on the prevention methods your partners are using. If you are going to rely on a method your partner is using then you need to know that they are using it the right way every time.

How Hiv Infects The Body

HIV infects the immune system, causing progressive damage and eventually making it unable to fight off infections.

The virus attaches itself to immune system cells called CD4 lymphocyte cells, which protect the body against various bacteria, viruses and other germs.

Once attached, it enters the CD4 cells and uses it to make thousands of copies of itself. These copies then leave the CD4 cells, killing them in the process.

This process continues until eventually the number of CD4 cells, also called your CD4 count, drops so low that your immune system stops working.

This process may take up to 10 years, during which time youll feel and appear well.

Page last reviewed: 22 April 2021 Next review due: 22 April 2024

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Reducing Hiv Transmission Risk During Pregnancy

For HIV-positive women, ways to reduce the risk of transmission include:

• Taking antiretroviral medications before conception to reduce your viral load . The lower the viral load, the lower the risk of transmission to your unborn baby.
• Start antiretroviral HIV treatment as soon as you are diagnosed with HIV .

Being on treatment and having a low, or undetectable, viral load improves your immune system and health throughout pregnancy.

HIV-positive pregnancy today, with specialised care, is the same as HIV-negative pregnancy. Pregnancy does not make HIV progress any faster.

Know Your Partners Viral Load Count

For ART to be effective, your partner has to take the medication every day, at the same time each day. Skipping doses can cause the virus to replicate unchecked and possibly mutate into a form thats resistant to the medication. If that occurs, your partners viral load count may increase, which means there is a greater likelihood that the virus can be transmitted to you.

Encourage your partner to get their viral load tested at least twice a year, if not more often. If the results demonstrate undetectable levels of HIV, then Its pretty safe ,” says Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, associate division chief of the division of HIV, infectious diseases, and global medicine at University of California, San Francisco/San Francisco General Hospital.

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Ways Hiv Is Not Transmitted

How well does HIV survive outside the body?

HIV does not survive long outside the human body , and it cannot reproduce outside a human host. It is not transmitted

• Through saliva, tears, or sweat.
• Through other sexual activities that dont involve the exchange of body fluids .
• Through the air.

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What Activities Are Safe

While certain sexual activities, such as mutual masturbation, barrier-protected oral sex, and oral to anal contact have little or no risk of HIV transmission, some of these activities may have the potential for transmitting other STIs. While HIV is transmitted only by blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk, other STIs can be transmitted by simple genital skin-to-skin contact or oral sex.

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How Can I Make Sure I Dont Give Hiv To Anyone During Sex

If you find out that you have HIV, try to stay calm. People living with HIV can have normal, healthy relationships and sex lives. But its important to take precautions to help your partner stay HIV-free.

There are a few ways that you can avoid giving HIV to other people:

• Always use condoms when you have vaginal and anal sex.

• Start treatment for HIV as soon as possible, and keep taking your HIV medicine. When you take it correctly, HIV treatment can lower or even stop your chances of spreading the virus to your sexual partners .

• Theres a daily pill your partner can take to lower the risk of getting HIV, called PrEP.

• Dont share needles for shooting drugs, piercings, or tattoos.

• Get tested and treated for other STDs besides HIV regularly. Having other STDs makes it easier for you to spread HIV to others.

If you test positive for HIV, its important to tell your sexual partners about it so they can be tested, too. Even if youre really careful to not spread HIV, be honest with your future partners about your status so you can both be informed and help each other stay healthy. Read more about talking with your partners about HIV.