World Aids Day 2011

Today is World Aids Day 2011 and I just wanted to remind you that...

Logo and information via HIVaware

HIV is not spread through day-to-day contact like touching or kissing. You can only get HIV if you have sex without a condom or by sharing a needle with someone who is HIV positive. In addition, being on HIV treatment makes people with HIV far less likely to pass it on.

You cannot get HIV from someone spitting and you. Even if they bit you, the infection risk is negligible: With over 60 million people infected with HIV worldwide over 25 years, there have only ever been four possible reports of HIV being transmitted through biting, all of which occurred in extremely specific and unusual circumstances.

Not only gay men get HIV. HIV can affect anyone: The majority of new HIV diagnoses in 2010 were acquired heterosexually, while approximately a third of people with HIV in the UK are women. Anyone who has sex without a condom or shares needles when injecting drugs is at risk of HIV

Find more common myths about HIV here.