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Frequently Asked Questions - About HIV & AIDS

How do you get HIV? The infected person passes the HIV virus to another person by bodily fluids. These bodily fluids must find a way into the bloodstream of the second person by what is called a 'port of entry' (a break in the skin through cuts and scrapes, bleeding gums or across a mucosal lining).

Blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk all have a high concentration of the virus, and are the fluids that a person could be exposed to in normal every-day living. Pregnant women who are HIV+ can pass the virus to their baby during the pregnancy, during delivery or by breast-feeding.

Who is at risk for being infected? Anyone can become infected with HIV. It's not who you are, but what you do that puts you at risk for contracting the HIV virus. It takes a body fluid from an infected person getting into your bloodstream to infect you. Some ways this could happen are:

• By having unprotected sexual activity (oral, anal and vaginal). Multiple partners could further increase this risk.
• Needle sharing (both recreational and prescribed drugs)
• Occupational exposures (on-the-job accidents)
• Body piercing/tatoos with instruments that haven't been sterilized in an autoclave
• Sharing smoke paraphernalia (the pipe gets hot, burn your lips, and burns the lips of those you are sharing it with. Blood from blisters can be passed from one person to the next).
• Gang rituals involving someone bleeding (there's a chance that you could come into contact with their blood).