HIV / Aids
How is HIV passed on?
A person gets HIV when enough of the HIV virus gets into their blood. The body fluids which contain enough HIV to infect someone are blood, semen, vaginal fluids including menstrual blood, and breast milk. This means that people can catch HIV from having unprotected sex (that means sex without using a condom) and sharing needles when injecting drugs. Some people have caught HIV from a blood transfusion, when one person’s blood is given to another person in hospital, but blood transfusions are now tested for HIV.
Saliva (spit), sweat and urine do not contain enough virus to infect someone. HIV cannot pass through skin unless a person has a cut, or through the air like a cold or flu virus. You cannot catch HIV from hugging, coughs, sneezes or kissing (although there is a very small chance of catching it from kissing with tongues if one person has a cut in their mouth). You cannot catch it from a toilet seat or sharing plates or cutlery. It is not caught from insect bites.
