HIV is a virus most commonly caught by having unprotected sex or by sharing infected needles to inject drugs.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. The virus weakens your ability to fight infections and disease, such as cancer. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, when your body can no longer fight life-threatening infections. There is no cure for HIV, but there are treatments to enable most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life.
How is HIV spread?
HIV is found in the body fluids of an infected person, which includes semen and vaginal fluids, blood, inside the anus and breast milk. However, it is not spread easily compared to other viruses, like colds or flu.
The most common ways of getting HIV in the UK are:
- having unprotected sex, including vaginal, oral and anal sex
- using a contaminated needle or syringe to inject drugs
- from mother to baby, before or during birth, or by breastfeeding
The virus enters the bloodstream, often through cuts and sores, and attacks the immune system, which protects the body against infection.
Read more about what causes HIV.
Getting tested
If you think you might be at risk of HIV, you should have a test immediately. The earlier HIV is detected, the more likely it is that treatment will be successful.
Emergency anti-HIV medication called PEP may stop you becoming infected, but treatment must be started within three days of coming into contact with the virus.
Many people newly infected with HIV have no signs or symptoms at all. The only way to find out if you have HIV is to have a blood test.
It can take several weeks after infection before the virus is picked up in testing, so after your initial test you will be advised to have another one a few weeks later.
There are a number of places you can get an HIV test, including your GP surgery, sexual health clinics and Fastest clinics (run by the Terrence Higgins Trust)
You may get the results in hours, days or weeks, depending on where you were tested. Find your nearest sexual health clinic.
If your test is positive you will be referred to a specialist HIV clinic where you'll have more blood tests to show what effect HIV is having on your immune system and be able to discuss treatment options. Find out more about coping with a positive HIV test.
Living with HIV
Although there is no cure for HIV, treatments are much more successful than they used to be, enabling people with HIV to lead as normal a life as possible.
Medication, known as antiretrovirals, works by slowing down the damage the virus does to the immune system. You will need to take a number of tablets every day.
You will be encouraged to take regular exercise, eat a healthy diet, stop smoking and have yearly flu jabs and five-yearly pneumococcal vaccinations to minimise the risk of getting serious illnesses.
Someone with HIV is said to have AIDS when tests show their immune system has stopped working and they develop life-threatening illnesses such as cancer.
Read more about living with HIV.
Preventing HIV
The best way to prevent HIV is to practise safe sex and use a condom, or if you inject drugs, do not share needles.
HIV can affect anybody. In the UK most people with HIV come from two groups; gay men and people of black African origin. However, there is still a high risk among heterosexual and non-African populations. Infection rates among heterosexuals in the UK rose from 740 in 2004 to 1,130 in 2008.
How common is HIV?
At the end of 2008, an estimated 83,000 adults aged over 15 were living with HIV in the UK. Of these, nearly 30% did not know they were infected.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 33 million people around the world are living with HIV.
The virus is particularly widespread in black African countries, such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
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