How Is HIV/AIDS Spread?

How Is HIV/AIDS Spread?

HIV/AIDS is contagious from person to person. People can spread the virus before they have developed any symptoms and are unaware they are infected. The HIV virus spreads in certain body fluids, including blood, semen ^* , breast milk, vaginal ^* fluid, and any other body fluid that contains blood. HIV can spread in the following ways:

• through vaginal, anal, or oral sexual intercourse
• by sharing needles to inject intravenous ^* (IV) drugs
• from mother to child in the womb
• during childbirth or breast-feeding
• from any blood-to-blood contact with someone who is infected, such as, in very rare cases, contact with an open wound (though the virus cannot be transmitted unless the skin of both people is broken).

^* semen (SEE-men) is the sperm-containing whitish fluid produced by the male reproductive tract.

^* vaginal (VAH-jih-nul) refers to the canal in a woman that leads from the uterus to the outside of the body.

^* intravenous (in-tra-VEE-nus) means within or through a vein. For example, medications, fluid, or other substances can be given through a needle or soft tube inserted through the skin's surface directly into a vein.

^* transfusions (trans-FYOO-zhunz) are procedures in which blood or certain parts of blood, such as specific cells, are given to a person who needs them because of illness or blood loss.