What is HIV?:
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that affects a person's immune system by reducing it's ability to fight everyday infections and diseases. Many people living with HIV today use treatment to live full lives.
What is AIDS?:
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) refers to a stage of HIV when the virus has significantly affected the immune system and potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses can occur. With effective treatment, many people living with HIV never develop this stage.
How is HIV transmitted?:
HIV is transmitted when specific bodily fluids from a person living with HIV enter another person's body in a high-risk way. These bodily fluids include:
- blood
- semen (‘cum’) and pre-seminal fluid ('pre-cum')
- anal fluids
- vaginal fluids
- breastmilk.
HIV is not transmitted by ordinary social contact. The ways HIV transmission can occur include:
- sex without a condom
- sharing injecting equipment
- passed from mother-to-baby during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding
- contaminated blood transfusions and organ/tissue transplants.
Attitudes to HIV:
People's views about HIV are shaped by many factors, including what they've learned, concerns about transmission, assumptions about how HIV is transmitted, and wider social attitudes.
Stigma and misinformation about HIV transmission can discourage people from testing and knowing their status - whether through fear of being judged, worries about confidentiality, or simply not seeing HIV as something that could affect them.
Bias and discrimination often shape negative attitudes to HIV and can deepen the stigma faced by people living with HIV.
Creating open, supportive conversations about HIV helps make testing and healthcare support feel respectful, and accessible to everyone.