Understanding and Challenging Stigma toward ... - Pact Cambodia

MSM and HIV
6. Presentation:
As a summary present the following basic messages on HIV transmission.
HIV is a fragile organism and does not survive long outside the body. It can
only survive for a few seconds once it is outside the body. Exposure to air or
water kills HIV.
HIV does not spread easily from person to person through everyday contact.
HIV is not transmitted through the air through sneezing or coughing like TB.
HIV is not transmitted through skin contact like a skin disease.
HIV is not transmitted through food or plates, cups, sheets, etc., or through
surfaces such as toilet seats.
HIV is only transmitted through infected blood, sexual fluid, or mother’s milk
getting into your body.
You can only get HIV through:
Having unprotected anal or vaginal sex (no condom) with an HIV infected
person.
Sharing needles or syringes with an injection drug user who is HIV positive.
HIV positive mothers passing HIV to their babies before or during birth
(through blood) or after birth through breast milk.
HIV has to get inside your body for you to become infected. This is why sex
and injecting drug use help to get HIV into the body. When we have anal sex
without a condom, sexual fluid can get into the body through small cuts in
the rectum or penis. When we inject drugs, the infected blood can go directly
into the bloodstream.
Receptive anal sex is much more risky than insertive anal sex. The rectum
has a large surface area and the skin in the rectum is very susceptible to tears
during anal sex, especially if the insertive partner is not using lubricant. Once
the skin gets broken, HIV in the semen or in blood from cuts on the penis of
the insertive partner can get easily into the body and the bloodstream of the
receptive partner, if they are not using a condom.
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