WORLD'S AIDS DAY

If you get HIV you’ll die soon

FACT: Treatments have come a long way, and although there isn’t a cure for HIV, it is not a death sentence. People diagnosed with HIV today can have a normal life expectancy and live healthy and productive lives.

You can tell by looking at someone if they have HIV.

FACT: Often people with HIV will not appear ill. In fact, you generally cannot tell if someone is living with HIV.

It takes months before you can have a test for find out if you are infected with HIV.

FACT:

A HIV test, that gives a reliable result, can be taken within a month of possible exposure to the virus.

If you have a test you face a long wait to find out the result.

FACT:

Test results are now available quickly.  Some tests can provide a result within 15 minutes.

Only gay men get HIV.

FACT:

Over 30,000 gay men in the UK have HIV but there are also heteros*xuals living with HIV in the UK. And a third of people with HIV in the UK are women. Anyone who has s*x without a condom or share needles when injecting drugs is at risk of HIV.

HIV is no longer a serious issue in the UK.

FACT:

More people than ever before are living with HIV in the UK. Over 7,000 people are diagnosed each year and the number of people with HIV is growing each year.

I don’t know anyone living with HIV.

FACT: Today there are more people than ever before living with HIV in the UK, but less people report knowing someone with HIV. People with HIV generally look healthy and many do not find it easy to tell other people, so you may not realise if someone you know is HIV positive.

My partner would tell me if they had HIV.

FACT: It is not always easy to tell someone you have HIV. In addition, over a quarter of people with HIV are undiagnosed. It is dangerous to assume that your partner would tell you. Always using a condom is the safest way to protect against HIV transmission.

I don’t need to worry about HIV because there are really good treatments available.

FACT: There is no cure for HIV. Although there are good treatments that mean people can live a long life with HIV, they require taking medication everyday. There can be side-effects. There are also long-term consequences of living with a long-term condition and sadly there is still a lot of stigma and discrimination.

People with HIV can’t work.

FACT: Treatments today mean most people with HIV who are working say it doesn’t affect their working lives. In a recent NAT survey 70% of respondents had taken no HIV-related sick days in the last 12 months. There are currently only a very small number of jobs that people with HIV cannot do (e.g. being a surgeon).

Lots of people come to the UK to get free treatment for HIV.

FACT: HIV-related health tourism is a myth. Although sometimes mentioned in the press there is no evidence that people come to the UK with the express and primary purpose of getting HIV treatment. In fact the evidence shows that most migrants with HIV who come to the UK do not know they have it before they arrive.

Only old people get HIV.

In 2007, more than 700 young people (aged 16 – 24) were diagnosed with HIV, 11% of all new HIV diagnoses. Young men who have s*x with men remain the group of young people most at risk of acquiring HIV in the UK.

You can get HIV from someone who spits at you or bites you.

There is no risk of HIV infection from spitting and the risk of infection from biting is negligible. With over 60 million people infected with HIV worldwide over 25 years, there have only ever been two reports of HIV being transmitted through biting, both instances occurred in extremely specific and unusual circumstances.

You can get HIV is you stand on a discarded needle.

There has never been a case of HIV infection from a discarded needle in the UK. There have only ever been five cases of HIV infection from needle stick injuries, these have all occurred in healthcare settings and there have been none since 1999. HIV is a very fragile virus that does not survive for long when exposed to the environment.