1. What are HIV and AIDS?

2. Who is at risk?

3. How do you get HIV?

4. Here's how you CAN'T get HIV...

5. How do you use a rubber?

6. How can I keep safe if I shoot drugs?

 

1. What are HIV and AIDS?

HIV and AIDS are related, but being HIV-positive and having AIDS are not the same thing.

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks and breaks down your body's immune system - the "internal defense force" that keeps you from getting sick. When the immune system becomes weak, we lose our protection against illness and can develop many serious, often deadly, infections and cancers.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name for the condition people develop after getting one or more of the serious infections connected with HIV. It's also the name for when blood tests show that the immune system has been badly damaged by the virus.

It usually takes many years for HIV to break down a person's immune system and cause AIDS. Most people have few, if any, symptoms for several years after they get infected. But once HIV gets into the body, it can "hide" for months or years. During this time it may be doing serious damage to the immune system. People who appear perfectly healthy may have the virus, without knowing it, and pass it on to others.

2. Who is at risk?

Anyone can get HIV - young and old, men and women, heterosexual, gay and bisexual, rich and poor, and all racial and ethnic groups - but everyone doesn't face equal risk. Your risk comes from what you do and who you do it with - that is, how likely it is that the person you have sex or share needles with is infected.

Some populations might be at higher risk because of the lack of access to health care, treatment or adequate information. But even if you are part of a community with a high infection rate, you can avoid getting HIV.

3. How do you get HIV?

The only way to contract HIV is by getting cum, blood, vaginal fluids, or breast milk from someone with HIV into your body. This could happen by:

1. By having unprotected sex (sex without a condom)

2. By sharing "works" (needles and syringes, cookers, cottons and water) when injecting drugs or other substances;

3. From a mother to her child before birth, during birth, or while
breastfeeding.

HIV enters a person's body mainly through the lining of the rectum (ass), the walls of the vagina, through direct contact with the bloodstream. The virus cannot enter through the skin unless the skin is broken or cut.

4. Here's how you CAN'T get HIV...

1. Casual contact: Toilet seats, public telephones, water fountains, shaking hands, sharing food and drinks.

2. Kissing, hugging, or mutual masturbation

3. From saliva, tears, or sweat

4. Insect bites or animal bites.

5. Living with an HIV-infected person (unless you have unprotected sex or share needles)

6. Blood transfusions, going to the dentist, going to the doctor (in the United States)

5. How do you use a rubber?

Latex condoms ("rubbers") prevent HIV infection. Using a condom may not always be easy, but it can save your life or someone else's. Here's how to use one.

	STEP 1: After rolling the condom over the penis, apply plenty of water-based lubricant ("lube") on the outside. If you use any lubricant on the inside of the condom, use only a small amount, right at the tip. Too much lube inside can make the condom slip off.
	STEP 2: Use only water-based lubricants (like K-Y) on condoms. Oil-based lubricants, such as Vaseline, Crisco and hand lotions, make condoms break. Don't use lube or condoms with nonoxynol-9. It strips the inside of your rectum or vagina.
	STEP 3: After you come, hold the base of the condom and pull out. You can also use a dry condom, or a flavored one, for oral sex. Cut a condom to the center and open it up for oral-anal or oral-vaginal sex. Never reuse a condom.

6. How can I keep safe if I shoot drugs?

Clean needles and bleach. Using a new, clean needle is by far the best protection against the virus if you are shooting drugs. Many states, including New York, have needle exchange programs where you can get free, clean needles. In some states, needles are available in drugstores as well.

If you do not get your set brand-new and sealed from a needle exchange or pharmacy, clean it with bleach before you use it.

STEP 1: Start by drawing clean water all the way up into your
set, shake it, and squirt it out. Repeat that process three times.

STEP 2: Then do it twice with full-strength household bleach. Try to leave the bleach in for a total of 30 seconds or more.

STEP 3: Finally, flush again, three times, with clean water. Clean the cooker by rinsing well with bleach, and never share or reuse
cotton - it can't be cleaned.