HIV and blood

HIV and blood

HIV and shared injection equipment

One in ten (3,106 out of 30,101**) infections in the UK were acquired through sharing drug injecting equipment with someone with HIV. But sharing injecting equipment is not less risky than having sex with someone who has HIV. In Scotland, and in Southern Europe and parts of the United States, shared drug injecting equipment is the most common route of infection.

People who inject drugs can avoid transmitting HIV, either to themselves or to others, if they use a new set of injecting equipment every time or sterilise equipment between users. However, there is evidence that unsafe drug injecting is on the increase in this country.

HIV and blood transfusions

In the UK, 168 men and women were infected with HIV through transfusions of blood which contained the virus.

All blood donations and organ donations in the UK have been tested for HIV since 1985. The test may not be accurate if a person was very recently infected, and so people at risk of HIV are asked not to give blood.

In 1997, 3 people in the UK were discovered to be HIV positive through receiving blood donated by someone who had themselves been very recently infected with HIV. These cases are the only ones to have occurred in many millions of donations since 1985.

In some countries, infection through blood transfusion is still a significant risk.

Blood factor treatments

Factor 8 is a product of donated blood used in the treatment of haemophilia. Before it was known that donated blood might contain HIV, 1,196 men and boys with haemophilia became infected in the UK. Haemophilia is rare in women, and only 11 women were infected in this way. All Factor 8 is now heat treated, which kills HIV.