HIV is spread by:
- Having sex without a condom.
HIV infection can happen through anal, vaginal or oral sex if you don’t use a condom. Unprotected (condom-less) oral sex is not as risky as vaginal and anal, but still can spread HIV, especially when there are cuts, bleeding gums or canker sores in the mouth. - Sharing needles, syringes or drug works.
Sharing any of the equipment to inject drugs can spread HIV. - Pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.
Without treatment, an HIV positive woman will transmit HIV to her child during pregnancy or childbirth about 25% of the time. Babies also become positive through breastfeeding.
To keep from getting or giving HIV:
- Use condoms. Proper, consistent use of latex condoms reduces the risk of HIV transmission dramatically, and helps prevent other STDs.
- Use clean needles. If you do use injectable drugs, use a new, clean needle every time.
- Have sober sex. Drug- and alcohol-free sex increases your chances of having safer sex.
- Learn more. The more you know about safer sex, your body, condom use, HIV and your partner, the better you can protect yourself against STDs.
- Fewer partners, monogamy and abstinence. The fewer sex partners you have, the more you reduce your risk of HIV infection. When making choices about your sex life, consider your risk along with the other factors. Trust yourself and what you need.
| Myth | Reality |
| HIV is a death sentence. | In the 1970s and 80s, people with HIV had extremely limited treatment options, and often died quickly after they first got sick. Since then, advances in medical treatment have made it possible to live long and well with HIV. Research into still better treatment is ongoing. |
| HIV only affects gay men and drug users. | HIV is an equal opportunity virus. Newborn babies, women, seniors, teens and people of all races or nationalities can have HIV. The prevalence of the virus in different groups varies (as it does for other diseases), but it can affect anyone. Of HIV positive people worldwide, slightly more than half are women. |
| HIV can be cured. | Beliefs that HIV can be cured – through specific sex acts or by new medicines – are unfounded. There is no cure for HIV. Antiretroviral therapy can reduce the presence of the virus in the body, but not eliminate it. |
| HIV/AIDS can be spread through casual contact, kissing or by mosquitoes. | Contact with the blood, semen, vaginal fluid or breast milk of someone with HIV is necessary to get the virus. HIV is not airborne and cannot be caught by touching skin, sweat or saliva. This means that holding hands, sharing drinking glasses and other casual contact can’t spread HIV. Open-mouthed kissing is likewise extremely low risk – open sores or blood would need to be present for transmission.
Mosquitos do not inject other people’s blood when they bite, and so can’t spread HIV. |
| HIV can’t be spread if you’re taking antiretroviral medicine, or if you use birth control. | Safer sex and, if you inject drugs, clean works are necessary to keep from spreading HIV. Antiretroviral therapy will control HIV symptoms and progression, but it won’t prevent infection by itself.
Birth control methods like the pill, sponges, diaphragms and spermicides are designed to prevent pregnancy, not infection. None of these methods protect against HIV or other STDs. |