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HIV Transmission Facts

HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 55,000 people are infected in the United States each year.

  1. How Not Transmitted

    • The HIV virus cannot survive outside the human body for extended periods of time; therefore, HIV can not be transmitted from casual activities, such as hugging and touching an infected person's belongings. Also, contrary to popular belief, mosquitoes cannot transmit HIV from an infected person to a non-infected person.

    How Transmitted

    • The HIV virus is found in the bodily fluids, such as blood, semen and breast milk, of an infected person. The most common forms of transmission occur through sexual activities (including, though in much rarer cases, oral sex and prolonged open-mouth kissing), from mother to child, or through intravenous drug use.

    Risk Factors

    • A person is at increased risk for HIV infection if he has ever shared needles or syringes, has ever had unprotected sex, has ever had sex with a man who has sex with other men, or received a blood transfusion prior to 1985.

    Prevention

    • HIV transmission can be prevented by abstaining from intravenous drug use and using a condom every time a sex act occurs.

    ABC's

    • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have developed the ABC's of HIV/AIDS prevention:
      Abstinence (the most effective method of prevention)
      Be faithful (multiple partners increases the risk of infection)
      Condoms (protected sex prevents disease transmission)

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