HIV is found in the body fluids of an infected person. This includes semen, vaginal and anal fluids, blood and breast milk. It's a fragile virus and does not survive outside the body for long. HIV is carried in semen (cum), vaginal fluids, anal mucus, blood, and breast milk. The virus gets in your body through cuts or sores in your skin, and through mucous membranes (like the inside of the vagina, rectum, and opening of the penis). You can get HIV from:

HIV cannot be transmitted through sweat, urine or saliva. The most common way of getting HIV in the UK is through having anal or vaginal sex without a condom.

Other ways of getting HIV include:

• Sharing needles, syringes or other injecting equipment
• Transmission from mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding
• Having vaginal or anal sex
• 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

The chance of getting HIV through oral sex is very low and will be dependent on many things, such as whether you receive or give oral sex and the oral hygiene of the person giving the oral sex.

Treatment options for HIV

Treatment should begin as soon as possible after a diagnosis of HIV, regardless of viral load.

The main treatment for HIV is antiretroviral therapy, a combination of daily medications that stop the virus from reproducing. This helps protect CD4 cells, keeping the immune system strong enough to take measures against disease. Antiretroviral therapy helps keep HIV from progressing to AIDS. It also helps reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others. When treatment is effective, the viral load will be “undetectable.” The person still has HIV, but the virus is not visible in test results.

However, the virus is still in the body. And if that person stops taking antiretroviral therapy, the viral load will increase again, and the HIV can again start attacking CD4 cells.