Basic Facts about HIV and AIDS:
What Is HIV?
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that weakens your immune system, your body's built-in defence against disease and illness. You can have HIV without knowing it. You may not look or feel sick for years, but you can still pass the virus on to other people. Without HIV treatment, your immune system can become too weak to fight off serious illnesses. HIV can also damage other parts of your body. Eventually, you can become sick with life-threatening infections. This is the most serious stage of HIV infection, called AIDS.
HIV can be passed from person to person if someone with HIV infection has sex with, or shares, drug injection needles with another person. It can also be passed from a person who is HIV positive to their baby when they are pregnant, when they deliver the baby, or if they breastfeed the baby.
What is AIDS?
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the syndrome you may develop when your immune system becomes too weak to fight off serious illnesses when living HIV positive. Without treatment, your immune system cannot fight the infections, and when your immune system fails, you can become very sick. It can take many years for HIV infection to develop into AIDS, however, with proper care and treatment, most people with HIV can avoid getting AIDS and can stay healthy for a long time.
Anti-Retroviral drugs (treatment) have to be taken every day. They cannot rid the body of HIV and AIDS, but they can keep it under control.
How does a person get HIV?
- Anyone can get HIV. The most important thing to know about HIV is how you can get the virus. This includes:
- Having unprotected sex - sex without a condom - with someone who has HIV. The virus can be in an infected person's blood, semen or vaginal secretions and can enter your body through tiny cuts or sores in your skin, or in the lining of your vagina, penis, rectum or mouth.
- Sharing a needle and syringe to inject drugs or sharing drug equipment used to prepare drugs for injection with someone who has HIV.
- Sharing needles, pens or other equipment used for tattooing or body art.
- From a blood transfusion or blood clotting factor that you got before 1985. (Since 1985, all blood in Canada has been tested for HIV which eliminates any risk for HIV transmission through blood transfusion).
- Babies born to women with HIV can also become infected during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.
You cannot get HIV:
- by working with or being around someone who has HIV.
- from sweat, spit, tears, clothes, drinking fountains, phones, toilet seats, or through everyday things like sharing a meal.
- from insect bites or stings.
- from donating blood.
- from kissing or hugging.
How can I prevent HIV?
- Don't share needles and syringes used to inject drugs, steroids, vitamins, or for tattooing, body piercing or body art. Also, don't share equipment ("works") used to prepare drugs for injecting.
- When having sex with somebody whose HIV or STI status you are unsure of, use a latex lubricated condom every time you have anal or vaginal intercourse. For oral sex on a man use a non-lubricated condom. For oral sex on a woman use a dental dam or cut a non-lubricated condom into a square and placed over the labia. nclude a link to photos demonstrating proper condom/dental dam use?
- Condoms that are lubricated are less likely to break. However, condoms with the spermicide nonoxynol-9 are not recommended for STI/HIV prevention.
- If you are pregnant or think you might be soon, talk to a doctor or health care provider about being tested for HIV. If you have HIV, drug treatments are available to help you and to reduce the chance of passing HIV to your baby.
How do I know if I have HIV or AIDS?
- You can have HIV and still feel perfectly healthy. The only way to know for sure if you are infected or not is to be tested. Talk to a health care provider or counsellor both before and after you are tested. You can go to the doctor or health department for testing. To find out where you can go for an HIV test:
- In Winnipeg call 945-2437
- In Manitoba call 1-800-782-2437
- If you live in or near Winnipeg, Nine Circles provides free confidential STI and HIV testing every Wednesday at our STI drop in clinic between 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Read about types of HIV tests available.
- If you have never been tested for HIV you should be tested. Also, Nine Circles recommends testing once a year if any of the following applies to you:
- you currently inject drugs or steroids or have done so in the past
- have had sex (anal, vaginal or oral) with an HIV-infected person
- have had sex with more than one partner since your last HIV test
- have had a sex partner who has had other sex partners since your last HIV test
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