What is HIV?
• HIV is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus: the virus that leads to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Once the virus enters your body, it begins to attack the immune system, your body’s defense against infections. You can be infected with HIV without feeling or looking sick.

• The only way to avoid HIV is by not having sex at all. If you choose to have sex, protect yourself by using a latex condom every time you have vaginal, anal or oral sex.

• If you are in a relationship and you want to have sex without using a condom every time, you and your partner must get tested to be sure that neither of you has HIV or any STD. You must be having sex with just one person, who only has sex with you.

• As HIV is also passed through blood, do not use any razors or needles for tattoos, piercing or IV drugs, unless you are sure they are clean and have never been used by someone else.

How is HIV spread?
HIV is spread from an infected person to another person through the sharing of body fluids:
Blood;
Semen;
Vaginal fluids;
Breast Milk.

This can happen during sexual intercourse, or if dirty needles are used for tattoos, body piercing or IV drugs. A pregnant woman who has HIV can also pass the virus to her unborn child, or after birth through breastfeeding.

In Nunavut, you cannot get HIV from a blood transfusion, as Red Cross has been testing all blood since 1985. Doctors and nurses in Canada always use sterile needles.

How do you test for HIV?
Anyone who has ever had vaginal, anal or oral sex without a condom might have an STD, such as HIV. The HIV test is a simple blood test that will show HIV antibodies in the blood. If you are going to be tested, you must wait 6 months after your last possible exposure to the virus (i.e. the last time you had sex without a condom) before you get the test. This is because it can take up to 6 months for the HIV antibodies to show up in the blood.

If an HIV test is positive, it means the person’s body fluids have the virus and can infect other people. HIV may not cause physical signs for months or years, so an HIV blood test is the ONLY way to find out if someone has HIV. It is important that someone who has HIV tells all his or her sex partners.

In Nunavut, all pregnant women are offered HIV testing in their prenatal check up.

AIDS is the last stage of the HIV infection. People who have AIDS have a weakened immune system so that they can get infections such as pneumonia, or develop cancers. All people who have HIV eventually get AIDS.