0782749118 Guide to HIV testings.i-Base.info4June 2016HIV in the UK [1] • More than 110,000 people in the UK are HIV positive. 90,000 are diagnosed and 20,000 do not know they have HIV.Over 80% of people who are diagnosed are on treatment which makes HIV difficult to transmit. • 1.5 million People take an HIV test each year. Half are in a sexual health setting and half in pregnancy screening. More than 99% of all results are negative.• Of the roughly 6,500 people who test positive each year (less than 0.5% of all tests), half are heterosexual and half are gay men. • Half of diagnoses are late: i.e. in people who are likely to have been HIV positive for many years. • Late diagnosis causes half of all HIV-related deaths. These could be prevented with earlier testing

0782749118 Guide to HIV testings.i-Base.info4June 2016HIV in the UK [1] •    More than 110,000 people in the UK are HIV positive. 90,000 are diagnosed and 20,000 do not know they have HIV.Over 80% of people who are diagnosed are on treatment which makes HIV difficult to transmit. •    1.5 million People take an HIV test each year. Half are in a sexual health setting and half in pregnancy screening. More than 99% of all results are negative.•    Of the roughly 6,500 people who test positive each year (less than 0.5% of all tests), half are heterosexual and half are gay men. •    Half of diagnoses are late: i.e. in people who are likely to have been HIV positive for many years. •    Late diagnosis causes half of all HIV-related deaths. These could be prevented with earlier testing

Monday to Wednesday 12 noon to 4pmPhoneline 0808 800 60135July 2016IntroductionThis booklet is about sexual transmission of HIV and HIV testing. It includes information on: • How HIV risk is more than just about condoms. • How and when different HIV tests can be used. • What test results mean, especially in relation to the time since your last potential risk. • The importance of making your own decisions about your sexual health. This guide is written for people who want to have sex.Condoms are excellent protection against HIV. But people still become HIV positive each year for complex reasons. The main reason condoms don’t always work is because they are not used every time. This booklet doesn’t talk about safer sex. Instead, it focuses on different risks for transmission that are more than just whether or not you use a condom. But sex is complicated. Even when being careful, some people will still become HIV positive. If this happens, there is little to gain from looking back. Treatment, when used correctly, is very effective. If you do find you are HIV positive, i-Base and other organizations can help. If you are positive it does not have to stop you leading a full, active and happy life. Changes to the third edition since the previous edition there have been major advances in relation to HIV prevention. Firstly, the PARTNER study has reported no linked HIV transmissions when viral load was undetectable. This was after couples had sex more than 58,000 without condoms. Secondly, PrEP is now established as a highly effective way to protect against HIV. PrEP is when an HIV negative person uses HIV drugs to prevent infection. When used correctly PrEP reduces the risk of transmission by more than 95%. These sections have been rewritten based on this latest evidence.

Guide to HIV testings.i-Base.info6July 2016HIV basics Fear of HIV testing HIV is not an easy virus to catch sexually. Compared to the numbers of people who have sex each year, only a tiny percentage of people will become HIV positive. The chance of not getting HIV is always much higher than getting HIV. This is the case even when one partner is HIV positive and the other is HIV negative. However, it also only takes one exposure for an infection to occur. An exposure is any situation where there would be a risk of transmission if one partner was HIV positive. Many new infections, perhaps most, come from people who do not know their HIV status. Someone who is very recently infected (within the last month or two) is likely to think they are still HIV negative. But this is the time when someone is also at their most infectious because in the first few months the amount of virus is at its highest. In nearly every country, 25-50% of HIV positive people have not been diagnosed. This percentage will only be reduced when HIV testing becomes a normal, routine part of health care. HIV, sex and risk this book is about sexual transmission of HIV.  Although most people know what is high or low risk there is less confidence about the middle ground in between these extremes. If one person has sex without a condom they are unlikely to become HIV positive. But if 10,000 people have sex without condoms, it is very likely that some will become HIV positive. Even if they all have exactly the same type of sexual risk. A low single risk can end up affecting a lot of people if the group is large. A lot of people have sex and the majority of times this doesn’t involve condoms. Understanding risk is also not always easy and is something that is not really taught in school. So we might worry most about things that are never likely to affect us, such as plane crashes and bird flu. On the one hand we convince ourselves that things we enjoy are low risk (“it will never happen to me”).On the other hand, some very low risk things are so scary that we can worry out of all proportion to the likelihood that it will happen (“I’m sure I am HIV positive”).This is how our brains work. No wonder HIV is so tricky to get your head around.

Monday to Wednesday 12 noon to 4pmPhoneline 0808 800 60137July 2016Which body fluids are infectious? The risk of HIV transmission is related to different factors. These include:•  Which body fluids are infectious.• How infection occurs - often called the ‘routes of infection’.• Other risk factors including viral load, type of sex, genetics etc. Only some bodily fluids have the potential to be infectious. These include: •    Sexual fluids (semen and vaginal fluid).• Mucus from the vagina and anus.•    Blood.• Breast milk is infectious to a baby but is unlikely to be infectious to an adult.•  Tears may be infectious but this is more a theoretical caution than a likely route of actual transmission. Saliva, spit, urine and faces are not infectious for HIV. What are the routes of infection? Common routes include: • Contact with the mucous membranes of genital or anal tissue. A mucous membrane is a type of tissue that is a less effective barrier than skin. The inner foreskin is also a mucous membrane. • Ulcers, sores, tears or tiny abrasions (i.e. that are too small to see) on genital tissue (to the vagina, penis or anal lining). • Any direct route into the bloodstream including cuts in your mouth. Sharing needles and injecting equipment has one of the highest risks of transmitting HIV. This is because there is a direct blood-to-blood route. The section on skin, mucous membranes and HIV transmission on pages 46 to 47 shows the different types of cell structure for skin and mucous membranes. These drawings show the different biology for penile, vaginal and anal sex. They show why some risks are higher than others and why anal sex has an especially high risk. They show why an uncircumcised man has higher risk for some activities compared to a circumcised man.

Guide to HIV testings.i-Base.info8July 2016Ways that HIV is not transmitted HIV is not transmitted by day-to-day activities or by contact with objects, food or clothes. The following list includes just a few examples of questions we get from people worried about catching HIV. Most of these questions come from a combination of fear and ignorance. They come from a lack of confidence in understanding HIV transmission. You can NOT catch HIV from:• Eating any food, cooked or uncooked, with blood on it.• From a sterile needle at a clinic or other health centre.• From a human bite.• From an insect bite including a mosquito bite.• From an animal.• From living in the same house as someone who is HIV positive.• From a sewing needle if you stab your finger.• From blood on a bus seat that went through your underwear.• Cleaning nail clippers.• Using a knife/fork/spoon/cup/plate that an HIV positive person may have used.•  Getting sexual fluid on skin.• Getting sexual fluid on a cut that has already healed over. A cut has to be open to be a risk of HIV. Effective barriers against HIV There are many effective barriers that prevent infection. Skin: Skin is an excellent barrier against HIV, unless there is an open cut or open wound. Infectious fluid on skin is NOT a route for infection. Mucous membranes in the mouth, throat and stomach: These membranes are good barriers against HIV infection, so long as there are not cuts, ulcers or sores. Saliva: Saliva contains proteins and a low salt content that actively reduce its infectiousness. Even when HIV is detected there is too little to cause infection. HIV is not transmitted by kissing including deep kissing. Spit cannot transmit HIV. Air: HIV is not transmitted by air. Latex and rubber: Condoms prevent infection from HIV and many other sexually transmitted infections. Many sexual situations have no risk of transmitting HIV. These include masturbation (by yourself or with a partner), kissing and deep kissing, receiving oral sex and vaginal or anal sex using a condom correctly. Call us on hot line +27782749118 Email drkevin@womensclinic.za.net / info@womensclinic.za.net https://pepandpreppills.blogspot.com