What is HIV?

HIV is a virus which can infect people. The initials stand for Human Immuno-deficiency Virus. It does not go away and can take a long time to make a person unwell. It does this by slowly attacking your immune system, your body’s way of fighting off other infections. For most people, it could take between eight and twelve years for HIV to damage their immune system enough for them to become ill. But HIV can only do this if nothing is done to stop it.

Mary

Although it wasn’t good news to find out I had HIV, it was good news to find out before HIV had done very much damage to my immune system.

Michael

Finding out I had HIV allowed me to make a decision about the kind of sex I was having. It helped me stop putting other people at risk of getting HIV from me.

Tricia

I found out I had HIV when I was tested in the antenatal clinic. Although it was all very upsetting, at least I was able to make choices to protect my baby.

David

My first thoughts were about who had given me HIV. I spent a lot of time thinking about that. In the end, I came to think that it really wasn’t helpful to know, and I could never know for certain. What difference does it make now to ‘blame’ someone? After all, I was there too when it happened.

 

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