Everyone who is sexually active should get tested for HIV, both for their own sake and to protect others. It only takes one instance to transmit HIV, and the virus doesn’t discriminate based on when or with whom.

HIV can be detected in blood, semen, breast milk, and vaginal secretions in untreated individuals with HIV. It is not present in sweat, tears, or saliva, meaning that physical contact or casual social interaction never poses a risk of transmission.

HIV is a fragile virus that dies outside the body. You can safely get bitten by mosquitoes, eat, and have sex with someone living with HIV who is on treatment without worrying about HIV!

Condoms protect against HIV, as does PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). A person on HIV treatment also cannot transmit the virus, even during unprotected sex.

It´s ok to have different feelings, but some things you just have to know. Young, old, man, woman, other, poor or rich in both city and countryside – the HIV virus does not discriminate and is present in all social groups. In Sweden, there are approximately 8,500 people with HIV and just as many stories about how they got HIV.

Since a judgment in the supreme court in Sweden in 2018, there is in practice no information obligation for HIV. This means that those who live with HIV and have well-adjusted treatment do not need to tell that they are living with HIV. The reason is that there is no longer any risk of HIV being transmitted with well-adjusted treatment.

Medically, HIV is managed and treated relatively easily. However, HIV is still socially stigmatized. This leads both to people living with HIV being stigmatized and to the pandemic continuing, as people avoid getting tested for fear of being stigmatized if they test positive.

40 million people live with HIV, of which approximately 8,500 are in Sweden. Only 11 percent feel that they can be open about their HIV, and a majority hide the fact that they are living with HIV from other people. A major reason for that is because of what others will think.

A so-called magnetic/serodiscordant couple (a couple in which one partner is living with HIV) or a couple where both partners have HIV can have children without transmitting the virus to the child, provided the person(s) with HIV are on treatment. At birth, the child receives prophylaxis for two weeks as an extra precaution. In Sweden, no children have been born with HIV when these guidelines are followed. Anyone living with HIV who meets the criteria for assisted reproduction can access it.

Many people living with HIV in Sweden feel that they lead a good life; however, stigma and exclusion often lead to isolation and loneliness. Many wish they could be more open about living with HIV without feeling different.

In Sweden, HIV is considered a chronic illness. Medication treatment provides a normal lifespan and ensures there is no risk of transmitting HIV to others. In 2020, the world’s oldest person with HIV, a man in Portugal, turned 100 years old!

Previously, people had to take up to 30 pills a day, but over time, HIV medications have improved, and most people in Sweden today take just one or a couple of pills daily. The treatment is lifelong.