Even after more than 20 years of public education about HIV, there are still so many misconceptions. This article will give you clear information about how a person gets infected with HIV.

A person can get infected with HIV through 4 bodily fluids:

• semen
• vaginal secretions
• blood
• breast milk

That’s it.

HIV is a “get in you” disease, not a “get on you” disease. Genital warts are an example of a disease that you can get just by coming into physical contact with the virus. With HIV, the virus also has to have a route of entry into the bloodstream.

The typical ways you can get HIV are unprotected sex and sharing needles with an infected person. Using injection drugs in and of itself is not risky. Sharing needles is. Of course, people who are high have lowered inhibitions and may have unsafe sex, so the drugs can contribute to the likelihood that a person will get HIV.

So, how do you reduce your risk of getting HIV?

Abstinence is the only 100% certain way that you can be sure you will not get HIV. That’s not the most realistic option for many of us. There are other things that you can do.

You could only have sex or share needles with a partner who is uninfected and also only having sex or sharing needles with you. This option assumes that the person will continue to be monogamous.

If you’re an injecting drug user and you want to share needles, you can clean the works before you use the needle you’re sharing.

You can use condoms. If used consistently and correctly, they are very effective. The thing is that most people don’t know how to use them correctly. Make sure you do. If you’re not sure, ask someone to show you. You could try Planned Parenthood or another family planning clinic or your own doctor, if you’re comfortable asking. They can also help you with learning how to ask partners to use condoms and other tricky situations that can arise with condoms.

You can have sex that doesn’t involve the exchange of bodily fluids. For example, you could try mutual masturbation.

You could reduce the number of times you have sex.

You could reduce the number of partners with whom you have sex.

You could try a less risky sexual behavior. There are some things that are more risky than others. The most risky behavior is being the receptive partner for anal sex. From there (in order of level of risk) are vaginal intercourse (for women), being the insertive partner for anal sex, vaginal intercourse (for men), receptive oral sex and finally insertive oral sex.

While abstinence is the only 100% certain way to avoid getting infected with HIV, that isn’t realistic for most adults. Whatever you choose to do, talk with your partner. Get tested and get educated.