HIV Transmission and Viral Loads
Learn how HIV is transmitted, and why viral loads are important.
How is HIV transmitted?
Cannot be transmitted through:
✋ Contact via objects such as shared cutlery, toilet seats, doorknobs etc.
🤝 💏 Hugging, touching or kissing (any skin contact)
💦 Exchange of saliva, this includes french kissing
🦟. Insect bites (includes mosquito bites)
🍽️ Sharing a meal or drink.
Can be transmitted through
🍆 Through unprotected sex* (anal, vaginal, and in very few cases via oral sex)
💉 Sharing injection needles or un-sterilised piercing instruments
🤰🤱 During pregnancy, childbirth or through breastfeeding*
🩸 Receiving blood products with HIV
🩸 Direct blood-to-blood contact
*Do note that HIV transmission during sex, pregnancy, and childbirth only occurs when the person living with HIV is not on effective medication or has a detectable viral load. If they have an undetectable viral load, then HIV cannot be transmitted.
⚠️ If you recently had, or are having unprotected sex with a person with HIV, please visit the page on reducing your risk of contracting HIV. It has crucial information on keeping yourself safe.
🤔
Does that mean that…
If someone has HIV,
they can never have unprotected sex, have children or breastfeed without passing on HIV to others?
Good question.
The short answer is that if they can achieve an undetectable viral load, they can do all of the above without passing HIV to others.
So what is an undetectable viral load?
Having an undetectable viral load means that the body still has HIV but the viral load is very low (below 50 copies of HIV/ml).
While HIV can never be eradicated from a person’s body after infection when a person living with HIV has an undetectable viral load, they cannot transmit HIV during sex (oral, vaginal, and anal sex) and this even includes sex without a condom.
How it works
Within 1 to 2 days, HIV medication blocks the replication of cells actively hosted by the virus and your viral load drops by 90%.
Within 2 to 3 weeks, the viral load further drops up to 99%. After starting treatment, it may take 3 to 6 months to become undetectable.
For the prescribed HIV treatment to be seen as effective against a particular strain of HIV, a person living with HIV should remain undetectable for an additional 6 months.
More Resources
HIV 101
There's lots of information out there about HIV and it can seem confusing for someone who wants to learn more. We've put together a list of FAQs to guide you through.
Living with HIV
With medication, HIV is a manageable, chronic condition - you will still be able to live a healthy and productive life.
For Caregivers
Caregiving for a loved one can be stressful and mentally exhausting. Learn how to identify and manage the stressors to keep yourself in a good mental state.