It’s time to educate ourselves about HIV
How can you prevent HIV?
Today, more tools than ever are available to prevent HIV transmission.
- Getting regular sexual health check, including a HIV test
- Using condoms the right way, every-time you have sex
- Taking PrEP if you are HIV negative
- Talking PEP within 72 hours if you feel you may have been exposed to HIV
- Never sharing your needles, syringes, or other drug equipment, if you inject drugs.
- Taking treatment as prevention (TasP) if you are HIV positive to eliminate the risk of HIV transmission.
What is PrEP?
PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a tablet that you can take to reliably prevent HIV.
Lots of people, especially gay and bisexual men, take PrEP to prevent HIV. PrEP works similarly to HIV treatment medication by stopping the virus from making copies of itself. If you’re on PrEP, the virus can’t set up in your body, so you will stay negative even if you have sex without a condom.
The medication can be taken every day to provide constant protection from HIV. If you don’t need regular protection from HIV, you can also choose to take PrEP on demand before and after sex to give you the same level of protection.
What is PEP?
PEP is short for post-exposure prophylaxis. It’s a medication that can prevent you from getting HIV after you have potentially been exposed to the virus through sex (or injecting).
You can think of PEP as a kind of ‘morning after pill’, but it’s a course of tablets that you take for 4 weeks, or as prescribed. PEP works the same way as PrEP and HIV medicines: by stopping HIV from making copies of itself, so it can’t set up in your body.
PEP must be started within 72 hours, but it is most effective if you start it sooner, ideally within 24 hours.
You need to go to a specialist sexual health doctor or sexual health service to access PEP. The doctor will do an assessment and decide whether PEP is right for you. You can also go to some public hospital emergency departments for PEP, which can be the best option if you need it on a weekend or outside of business hours. Find the nearest place for you to access PEP here.
What is U=U?
Undetectable equals Untransmittable, U=U. Which means, HIV can’t be passed on.
When someone takes their HIV medication as prescribed, their viral load will be reduced to such a low level that it can’t be picked up on a test. This is called an Undetectable Viral Load.
With such a low level of HIV in the blood, the virus can’t be passed on to others through sex, or put another way, untransmittable.
What is undetectable viral load?
Undetectable viral load, sometimes written as U+, means that a person is living with HIV but the level of the virus is so low that it can’t be detected in their blood. A viral load is how many copies of the virus are present per millilitre of blood. For the HIV virus to be considered undetectable, there must be less than 200 copies per mL. Most people on ART have an even lower level than this, often less than 20 copies for mL. In comparison, a high viral load, usually found in someone who doesn’t know they have HIV yet, is considered to be over 100,000 copies per mL, but may be well over 1 million.
HIV treatment stops HIV from making copies of itself, allowing the immune system to remove the virus. And because so much HIV is removed from their body, a person with an undetectable viral load still has HIV but can’t pass it on.
How do I test for HIV?
HIV testing is fast and easy. You have a host of options depending on where you are and what suits you best:
- Ask any GP/doctor for sexual health check, just make sure it includes a HIV test. If you’re unsure, ask your doctor, but if you haven’t had blood taken, it won’t include a HIV test. If it’s been a while since your last sexual health check, or you’ve never test before, always insist that it includes HIV.
- Book in with your closest Queensland Health Sexual Health Service for a check.
- If you’re from Queensland, you can have a free HIV self test kit discreetly mailed to you. Just order online from our clinic, RAPID.
- Find where to get a HIV self test kit from some pharmacies for a reasonable price or order online here.
- If you’re based in Brisbane, visit our free walk in clinic RAPID. It can be busy though so plan for a little wait.
When should I test for HIV?
The window period for HIV testing is 3 months. This is the time between when you come into contact with HIV and when it will show up on a blood test. If you’re especially worried about HIV, we suggest testing at 6 weeks after sex (or injecting), when the test is very likely to be accurate, then again after another 6 weeks to be sure.
The window period for HIV is part of why regular testing is so important. How often you test depends on what kind of sex you have and how often. At least once every year is a good idea for everyone, and people who are more sexually active might like to consider closer to every 3 months.
What if the test is positive?
If your HIV test is positive, it’s no big deal these days. There are extremely effective treatments, so people with HIV live long, healthy, vibrant lives.
Queensland Positive People (QPP) has a range of support options if you need them. We can help you get in touch with a clinic to start treatment and help you with everything from social support, to advice about work, migration, and more. Other states have similar organisations and we can link you to them too.
HIV in Queensland
About 6000 Queenslanders live with HIV, of the approximately 30,000 people living with HIV here in Australia. Australia is a world leader when it comes to prevention, treatment and care of HIV.
There is still work to be done, however.
For gay and bisexual men, we have welcomed a strong decrease in new HIV diagnoses over the past decade (52%). This is thanks to targeted public health approaches, community awareness, effective HIV medications and new prevention drugs like PrEP. For heterosexual people however, the number of new diagnoses of HIV has remained steady over the same period.
Even though about more than 20% of all HIV diagnoses in the past year in Queensland were in heterosexual people, there is a wide misconception that it doesn’t exist at all.
It’s estimated that almost 3000 people in Australia don’t know they are living with HIV. This can impact their health obviously and put their partners at risk too. There is something you can do about it though.
It’s simple, get a HIV test if it’s been a while, or if you’ve never had one. While you’re at it, get a sexual health screen for the other much more common infections. Most of them are easy to treat but can certainly be harmful if left to do their own thing.
Can I get support?
If you’re recently diagnosed or if you have been living with HIV for a while, support is available. Queensland Positive People (QPP) innovative services include:
- Peer navigation to navigate the complex environment of HIV diagnosis, treatment and care
- Case management which provides practical assistance with accessing medications, clinical services, food, housing and other essential support services
- Aged Care Navigation
- Legal support and referral for stigma, discrimination, migration and the law
- Emergency funding support
- Social groups and peer connection
Our Peer Navigation program, provides support around the contemporary issues of HIV, and offers people living with HIV an opportunity to talk about topics such as coming to terms with a diagnosis, starting/switching treatment, or negotiating the impacts of stigma. If you would like to talk to a QPP Peer Navigator, please click here to learn more about this program.
QPP also have several social groups that run at different times throughout the year. These are informal gatherings, where people living with HIV can connect in a safe space.
Many other states and territories in Australia offer peer support for people living with HIV. Head to NAPWHA’s site for links and information.
Rethinking HIV
There’s a lot to be done to end HIV, but you can help make a difference.
Thousands of scientists, researchers, doctors and heathcare workers, together with community advocates and allies are working towards even better treatments and prevention methods, together with finding a cure to HIV. This important work will continue each and everyday until HIV is no longer. However, there are things we can all do to help bring an end to HIV.
Learn more about HIV and sharing that knowledge with others.
Educating yourself about HIV and sharing your knowledge with others, not only dispels with myths around HIV but also helps to keep you safe. Knowing how HIV is transmitted and to protect yourself is critical.
Using intentional and thoughtful language when talking about HIV.
The first letter in HIV stands for human. Thats exactly how every person living with HIV wants to be treated, like a human. Language matters and using words like ‘clean’ infers that people with HIV are ‘dirty’ and this isn’t true, but is also disrespectful. This can also be true about asking ‘How did you get HIV?’. It’s a bit like asking ‘Were you a planned child or an accident?’. Sure, we are curious creatures, but often there is a level of social judgement in those kinds of questions. It doesn’t matter how someone got HIV, or if you were planned, we are all just humans trying to live our best life.
Educate healthcare workers
You might think that every healthcare professional would know all about HIV wouldn’t you? Well, sadly, just like for everyone else, there is a lack of current knowledge and a lot of biases, judgements and at it’s worst discrimination out there.
Not everyone is always in the position to advocate for themselves, but sometimes we are. You might be at a chiropractors, filling in a registration form, and it might ask if you “have HIV/AIDS”. Firstly, I’m sure you already know that HIV and AIDS aren’t the same, and asking about HIV is more than sufficient, but importantly, there is really no reason that they would need to know that about every patient. It’s irrelevant and unnecessary, and might lead to discrimination. You could let them know, politely of course, that they should remove that question.
Universal precautions are exactly that, universal, and does protect against HIV. Wearing gloves when there might be blood present is normal and necessary, whether the person is living with HIV or not. What shouldn’t happen is excessive precautions being used only when someone discloses their status. There is a difference between being safe, and treating people differently. If you see this happening, call it out.
Respect the privacy of people who are living with HIV
Someone’s HIV status, like all health information, is private. If someone chooses to disclose their HIV status to you, keep it to yourself. It’s their information to share, not yours.
Do your bit to remove travel restrictions
We aren’t here to get political, but sadly, there are countries in the world where it is impossible for someone living with HIV to even visit. Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Russia, Solomon Islands, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen still categorically refuse entry to people with HIV. Concerningly, in some cases, there are worse consequences that being refused entry too, like deportation or imprisonment. We wouldn’t go as far as saying, don’t visit those places, but we think there are plenty of beautiful, inclusive places in the world to visit first.
Remember that HIV doesn’t care about your gender
HIV doesn’t just affect gay men, or men, it affects everyone. No matter what your gender, if you are due for a sexual health check, and want to include a HIV test, it’s your right to have one. About half of the new HIV diagnoses that happen in Australia each year are late diagnoses, meaning the person has had HIV for more than four years without knowing. Sometimes, in that period, there were missed opportunities to find out earlier, don’t miss yours next time you test.
Fight inequality and discrimination
People who are marginalized—including trans women, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and drug users—face legal and social inequities which put them at higher risk of HIV infection. Discrimination against these groups negatively affects their health, and reduces access to healthcare—including HIV testing and treatment. Many people experience multiple forms of discrimination—not just that related to their HIV status, but also with respect to gender, sexual orientation, race, etc. This can affect people across many components of their lives.
We still have laws and policies in Queensland, and Australia that were written to specifically target people with HIV, and still even with all of the medical advancements of the last 40 years, are used to discriminate and criminalise people with HIV. QPP and other state and national HIV organisataions are working to change this injustice.
But legal advances are not enough, cultural norms also need to change. How can we make this happen? By looking to the leadership of the people with the most knowledge and expertise—people with HIV themselves.
Listen to people living with HIV
People with lived experience of a condition or social reality deserve a voice in decisions that affect them. This means that people with HIV must be at the forefront of the movement to end HIV, and we are glad to say, in Australia, we are world leaders in the involvement of people living with HIV in the HIV response.
Start with yourself
There’s a lot to be done to end HIV, but you can help make a difference, and by being here you already are.
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