Which of the following is not one of the ways listed to lower the risk of acquiring aids?

You can only get HIV by coming into direct contact with certain body fluids from a person with HIV who has a detectable viral load. These fluids are:

• Blood
• Semen (cum) and pre-seminal fluid (pre-cum)
• Rectal fluids
• Vaginal fluids
• Breast milk

For transmission to occur, the HIV in these fluids must get into the bloodstream of an HIV-negative person through a mucous membrane (found in the rectum, vagina, mouth, or tip of the penis), through open cuts or sores, or by direct injection (from a needle or syringe).

People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex.

How Is HIV Spread from Person to Person?

HIV can only be spread through specific activities. In the United States, the most common ways are:

Less common ways are:

• An HIV-positive person transmitting HIV to their baby during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. However, the use of HIV medicines and other strategies have helped lower the risk of perinatal transmission of HIV to less than 1% in the United States. Learn more.
• Being exposed to HIV through a needlestick or sharps injury. This is a risk mainly for health care workers. The risk is very low.

HIV is spread only in extremely rare cases by:

• Having oral sex. Oral sex carries little to no risk for getting or transmitting HIV. Theoretically, it is possible if an HIV-positive man ejaculates in his partner’s mouth during oral sex. Factors that may increase the risk of transmitting HIV through oral sex are oral ulcers, bleeding gums, genital sores, and the presence of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), which may or may not be visible. However, the risk is still extremely low, and much lower than with anal or vaginal sex.
• Receiving blood transfusions, blood products, or organ/tissue transplants that are contaminated with HIV. The risk is extremely small these days because of rigorous testing of the U.S. blood supply and donated organs and tissues. (And you can’t get HIV from donating blood. Blood collection procedures are highly regular and very safe.)
• Being bitten by a person with HIV. Each of the very small number of documented cases has involved severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood. This rare transmission can occur through contact between broken skin, wounds, or mucous membranes and blood or body fluids from a person who has HIV. There is no risk of transmission if the skin is not broken. There are no documented cases of HIV being transmitted through spitting as HIV is not transmitted through saliva.
• Deep, open-mouth kissing if both partners have sores or bleeding gums and blood from the HIV-positive partner gets into the bloodstream of the HIV-negative partner. HIV is not spread through saliva.
• Eating food that has been pre-chewed by a person with HIV. The only known cases are among infants. HIV transmission can occur when the blood from an HIV-positive caregiver’s mouth mixes with food while chewing and an infant eats it. However,  you can’t get HIV by consuming food handled by someone with HIV.

Learn more about how HIV is passed from one person to another.

Does HIV Viral Load Affect Getting or Transmitting HIV?

Yes. Viral load is the amount of HIV in the blood of someone who has HIV. If taken as prescribed, HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) can reduce a person’s HIV viral load very low level, which keeps the immune system working and prevents illness. This is called viral suppression, defined as having less than 200 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood.

HIV medicine can also make the viral load so low that a standard lab test can’t detect it. This is called having an undetectable level viral load. Almost everyone who takes HIV medicine as prescribed can achieve an undetectable viral load, usually within 6 months after starting treatment.

As noted above, people with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex.

HIV medicine is a powerful tool for preventing sexual transmission of HIV. But it works only if the HIV-positive partner gets and keeps an undetectable viral load. Not everyone taking HIV medicine has an undetectable viral load. To stay undetectable, people with HIV must take HIV medicine as prescribed and visit their health care provider regularly to get a viral load test. Learn more.

How is HIV Not Spread?

HIV is not spread by:

• Air or water
• Mosquitoes, ticks, or other insects
• Saliva, tears, sweat, feces, or urine that is not mixed with the blood of a person with HIV
• Shaking hands; hugging; sharing toilets; sharing dishes, silverware, or drinking glasses; or engaging in closed-mouth or “social” kissing with a person with HIV
• Drinking fountains
• Other sexual activities that don’t involve the exchange of body fluids (for example, touching).
• Donating blood

HIV can’t be passed through healthy, unbroken skin.

How Do You Get AIDS?

You can’t “catch” AIDS, which stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection. If a person has HIV and is not on HIV treatment, the virus will weaken the body’s immune system and the person will progress to AIDS.

People with AIDS have such badly damaged immune systems that they get a number of severe illnesses, called opportunistic infections.

However, thanks to today’s effective HIV treatment, most people with HIV in the U.S. do not have AIDS. People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can stay healthy and will not progress to AIDS.

HIV can affect anyone regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender, age, or where they live. However, certain groups of people in the United States are more likely to get HIV than others because of particular factors, including the communities in which they live, what subpopulations they belong to, and their risk behaviors.

Communities. When you live in a community where many people have HIV, the chance of being exposed to the virus by having sex or sharing needles or other injection equipment with someone who has HIV is higher. You can use CDC’s HIV, STD, hepatitis, and tuberculosis Atlas Plus to see the percentage of people with HIV (“prevalence”) in different U.S. counties and states, as well as other data. Within any community, the prevalence of HIV can vary among different subpopulations.

Subpopulations. In the United States, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are the population most affected by HIV. According to CDC, of the 30,635 new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. in 2020, 68% (20,758) were among gay and bisexual men.a By race/ethnicity, Blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos are disproportionately affected by HIV compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Also, transgender women who have sex with men are among the groups at highest risk for HIV infection. People who inject drugs remain at significant risk for getting HIV as well.

Risk behaviors. In the United States, HIV is spread mainly through having anal or vaginal sex or sharing needles or syringes with an HIV-positive partner. Anal sex is the highest-risk behavior. Fortunately, there are more HIV prevention tools available today than ever before. These include using condoms correctly, every time you have sex; pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), medicine people at risk for HIV take to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use; and treatment as prevention, a method in which people with HIV take HIV medicine as prescribed to achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load, a level of HIV in the blood so low that it can’t be detected in a standard blood test. People with HIV who take HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex.

Visit our U.S. Statistics page for more information on how HIV affects different populations.

What Should I Do If I Think I’m At Risk for HIV?

If you think you’re at risk for getting HIV, or that you might already have HIV, get tested and learn about the effective HIV prevention and treatment options available today.

Testing is the only way to know for sure if you have HIV. Find out whether testing is recommended for you.

Many HIV tests are now quick, free, and painless. Ask your health care provider for an HIV test or use the HIV Services Locator to find a testing site near you. You can also buy an FDA-approved home testing kit at a pharmacy or online.

Knowing your HIV status gives you powerful information to help you take steps to keep you and your partner(s) healthy:

• If you test positive, you can start HIV treatment to stay healthy and prevent transmitting HIV to others.
• If you test negative, you can use HIV prevention tools to reduce your risk of getting HIV in the future.

National HIV/AIDS Strategy Addresses HIV Risk

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy (2022-2025) (NHAS) articulates goals, objectives, and strategies to prevent new infections, treat people with HIV to improve health outcomes, reduce HIV-related disparities, and better integrate and coordinate the efforts of all partners to achieve the bold targets for ending the epidemic in the United States. The NHAS identifies the following priority populations disproportionally impacted by HIV:

• Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, in particular Black, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native men
• Black women
• Transgender women
• Youth aged 13–24 years
• People who inject drugs

The NHAS maintains that focusing efforts on these five priority populations will reduce the HIV-related disparities they experience, which is essential if the nation is to succeed on the path toward ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.

The NHAS further acknowledges populations with or experiencing risk for HIV whose circumstances warrant specific attention and tailored services. This includes immigrants, individuals with disabilities, justice-involved individuals, older adults, people experiencing housing instability or homelessness, and sex workers. The Strategy also focuses on social determinants of health, the conditions where people live, learn, work, and play, that influence HIV risk or outcomes.

Learn More about Groups at Higher Risk for HIV

The CDC fact sheets listed below provide in-depth information about groups at greater risk for HIV. More links are provided under Additional Resources.

Risk by sexual orientation

Risk by gender

Risk by race/ethnicity

Risk by age

• HIV in the United States by Age
• HIV and Youth

Risk by region

• HIV in the United States by Region
• HIV in the Southern United States

Risk and substance use

• HIV and People Who Inject Drugs
• HIV and Substance Use in the United States

Risk and other groups

• HIV and Sex Workers
• HIV and People Who Are Economically Disadvantaged

Notes

a Data on subpopulations are from:
CDC. Diagnoses of HIV Infection in the United States and Dependent Areas, 2020. HIV Surveillance Report, 2020; 33.
Data for the year 2020 should be interpreted with caution due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to HIV testing, care-related services, and case surveillance activities in state and local jurisdictions.