It's what you do that puts you at risk for HIV

It's what you do that puts you at risk for HIV -- not how you feel.

Because the symptoms of acute HIV are almost impossible to tell apart from the symptoms of the flu, they're not a good enough reason on their own for you to run and get tested for HIV. What really matters is whether you did anything within the past six to 12 weeks that may have put you at risk for HIV.

Remember: HIV has to get into your bloodstream in order to infect you, and that isn't going to happen during the course of most everyday activities. In fact, of the hundreds of things you might do during the course of your day, these are the only ones that put you at risk for getting HIV because of the possibility that during one of these activities someone else's blood might enter your own bloodstream (which, incidentally, cannot happen if a scab or a sore spot on your skin brushes against a surface that looks as if it has dried blood on it):

• unprotected vaginal or anal sex (especially if you're the one providing the vagina or anus)
• sharing injection drug equipment, especially needles
• if you're a baby, being born to or breastfed by an HIV-positive woman
• unprotected oral sex (if you're providing the mouth; this is a much lower risk than the others)

That's it. For any other type of activity -- kissing someone with HIV, sharing food or drinks with them, touching something an HIV-positive person touched -- there's basically no chance that whatever you did resulted in you getting HIV. If you're curious about whether specific sexual acts are riskier than others, check out these frequently asked questions from TheBody.com's "Ask the Experts" forums or this research review from HIV InSite.