HIV and AIDS

What is it and how do I get it?

HIV is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It damages the body’s immune system so it can’t fight off infections. HIV can lead to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

You can get HIV in four main ways:

• Having vaginal or anal sex without using a condom
• Sharing needles or other injecting equipment
• From an infected mother to her baby, during pregnancy, birth or through breastfeeding
• By infected blood.

You can’t get AIDS through everyday social contact such as shaking hands, kissing, sharing toilet seats, going to swimming pools etc.

What are the symptoms?

You can have HIV and not have any symptoms for 10 years or more.

The initial stage of HIV is known as primary HIV infection. Symptoms at this stage are usually very mild and can be mistaken for colds and glandular fever, they include:

• Fever
• Sore throat
• Tiredness
• Joint and muscle pain
• Swollen glands
• Blotchy rash on the chest.

After these initial symptoms you may not experience any other symptoms for many years. However the virus is still reproducing and damaging your immune system.

Left untreated HIV will cause your immune system to stop working causing a serious infection, possible symptoms of this include:

• Persistent tiredness
• Night sweats
• Unexplained weight loss
• Persistent diarrhoea
• White spots on your tongue or mouth
• Blurred vision
• Dry cough
• Shortness of breath
• A high fever that lasts a number of weeks
• Swollen glands that last for 3 months or more.

Illnesses such as pneumonia, TB and some cancers can appear that this stage.

What does getting tested involve?

A blood test is the only reliable way to tell if you have HIV or not. It takes about a week to process and return the results.

The earlier that HIV is diagnosed the more likely it is that treatment will be successful.

It is sometimes possible to stop the development of HIV in the first 72 hours after infection. This is known as Post Exposure Prophylaxis or PEP for short. It involves taking anti HIV medicines for four weeks. This is often used when a person knows they have definitely been exposed to the virus – for example they had sex with someone who is HIV positive and the condom broke. PEP is NOT guaranteed to work and the medicine can have some unpleasant side effects such as sickness and diarrhoea.

If you are diagnosed with HIV and have health or life insurance your insurance company will have to be informed. 

How can I get tested?

It is best to get tested and treated for HIV at your local Genito-urinary Medicine (GUM) or Terrence Higgins/Brook clinic. Contraception and Sexual Health (CaSH) clinics can test for HIV but if your test is positive they will refer you to the GUM clinic for treatment.  Sexual health staff are used to dealing with this type of illness. They will be able to give you further advice on how to stay healthy and make sure you get any other support or treatment you need.

All of these services are totally confidential. GUM and CaSH clinics are specialist clinics that deal with STIs. You don’t need to have been referred by your GP to use them you can make an appointment over the phone yourself.

If you want to find out more information about GUM and CaSH clinics, have a look at our 'What to expect: GUM clinics' and 'What to expect: CaSH clinics' pages.

What does treatment involve?

HIV cannot be cured but it can be prevented and treated.  Treatment involves taking a number of different antiviral drugs – usually three or more.  This combination of antivirals has helped people with HIV to stay well and lead relatively normal lives.

As part of your treatment you will have regular blood tests so that staff can keep a check on the disease and to see whether the medicines being used to treat the HIV are working effectively.  You will also be offered counselling.

What are the health effects?

Without treatment HIV will damage your immune system until it becomes so badly damaged you develop AIDS – which can be fatal.