HIV/STI Testing

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. It damages your immune system, making it easier for you to get sick. HIV is spread during sex, but condoms can help protect you.

HIV stands for “human immunodeficiency virus.” It’s a virus that can only infect humans and leads to the weakening of the immune system. The immune system is the body’s system for fighting disease. When it’s compromised or weakened, a person becomes vulnerable to all kinds of bacteria, viruses, or other agents that cause disease.

HIV is carried in semen (cum), vaginal fluids, anal mucus, blood, and breast milk. Most people who get HIV get it through anal or vaginal sex or sharing needles syringes. You can get HIV from:

• Having vaginal or anal sex
• Sharing needles or syringes for shooting drugs, piercings, tattoos, etc.
• Getting stuck with a needle that has HIV-infected blood on it
• Getting HIV-infected blood, semen (cum), or vaginal fluids into open cuts or sores on your body

There are many myths about the way that HIV is spread. HIV is not transmitted through saliva (spit) or sweat. HIV is also not spread through hugging, holding hands, coughing, or sneezing. And you can’t get HIV from a toilet seat. If you don’t know if you’ve been exposed to HIV, the best way to feel confident in your status is by getting an HIV test.

There are also many ways to prevent the spread of HIV. Using condoms and/or dental dams every time you have sex and not sharing needles can help protect you and your partners from HIV. If you don’t have HIV, there’s also a daily medicine called PrEP that can protect you from HIV.

HIV destroys cells in your immune system called CD4 cells or T cells. Without CD4 cells, your body has a hard time fighting off diseases. This makes you more likely to get really sick from infections that usually wouldn’t hurt you. Over time, the damage HIV does to your immune system leads to AIDS.

You have AIDS when you get rare infections (called opportunistic infections) or types of cancer, or if you’ve lost a certain number of CD4 cells. Treatment can delay or even prevent you from ever developing AIDS.

No.

The following are a number of behaviors that increase your chances of getting HIV. If you answer yes to any, you should definitely get an HIV test.

• Have you injected drugs or shared works (such as needles, syringes) with others?
• Have you had unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex?
• Have you exchanged sex for drugs or money?
• Have you been diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis, tuberculosis (TB), or a sexually transmitted infection (STI), like syphilis?
• Have you had unprotected sex with someone who could answer yes to any of the above questions?

If you have had sex with someone whose history of sex partners and/or drug use is unknown to you or if you or your partner has had many sex partners, then you are at risk of being infected with HIV.

Many HIV tests are antibody tests that measure the antibodies your body makes against HIV. It can take some time for the immune system to produce enough antibodies for the antibody test to detect and this time period can vary from person to person. This time period is commonly referred to as the “window period.” Most people will develop antibodies in the first 3 months following the time of their infection. In rare cases, it can take up to 6 months to develop antibodies to HIV.

Once HIV enters the body, the immune system starts to produce antibodies — (chemicals that are part of the immune system that recognize invaders like bacteria and viruses and mobilize the body’s attempt to fight infection). In the case of HIV, these antibodies cannot fight off the infection, but their presence is used to tell if a person has HIV in his or her body. In other words, most HIV tests look for the HIV antibodies rather than looking for HIV itself.

Some tests take a few days for results, but rapid HIV tests can give results in about 20 minutes. All positive HIV tests must be followed up by another test to confirm the positive result. Results of this confirmatory test can take a few days to a few weeks.

While HIV cannot be cured, modern therapies and treatments are available that can help people with HIV live long, healthy lives. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a combination of medicines that slows down the effects of HIV in your body and can help you stay healthy for many years. It can also lower or even stop your chances of giving HIV to anyone else.

ART lowers an individual’s “viral load.” A person’s viral load is the amount of HIV in their body. If people with HIV stay in treatment, their viral load can get so low that HIV won’t appear on standard blood tests. When this happens, doctors refer to a person’s status as “undetectable.” When someone’s viral load becomes undetectable, they can’t spread HIV to others during sex.

Even though viral loads can become undetectable, HIV is still present in the body. If you fall out of care or stop treatment, your viral load can go back up. That will make it possible to pass HIV to your partner(s).