Questions and Answers about HIV/AIDS
,
,Table of Contents
Part I: Questions and Answers for Young People and Students . . . . . 1
1. What is the history of HIV/AIDS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. What is the difference between HIV and AIDS? . . . . . . . . . . .2
3. What should I know about HIV prevention and sex? . . . . . . . . 3
4. What should I know about HIV prevention and substance use? . .4
5. If I need to write a school report about HIV /AIDS,
where can I find information and statistics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. What is the New York State Youth Sexual Health Plan? . . . . . . .5
7. How can I get involved in helping others and being a leader? . . .5
8. Will we ever see an end to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic? . . . . . . . .5
Part II: Questions and Answers About HIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
1. How is HIV transmitted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. What are the ways that HIV cannot be transmitted? . . . . . . . . .8
3. Can a woman living with HIV pass the virus on to her baby? . . . .8
4. What does Undetectable = Untransmittable
(otherwise known as U=U) mean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5. What can a person do to avoid getting HIV
through sexual behavior? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. How can a person get condoms to prevent HIV? . . . . . . . . . 10
7. What can a person do to avoid HIV through drug use? . . . . . . 11
8. How can a person who injects drugs or other substances
obtain sterile injection equipment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
9. What can people who are living with HIV do to avoid passing
the virus to others? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10. What can I do if I think I was exposed to HIV? . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
11. Why is HIV testing important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
12. How does HIV testing work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
13. Where can I get an HIV test? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
14. How often should a person be tested? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
15. What does it mean to have a negative test result? . . . . . . . . 14
16. What does it mean to have a test that results in an
HIV diagnosis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
, Importance of Health Care and Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
17. How does HIV affect a person’s health? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
18. What is the treatment for HIV? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
19. How can a person get help paying for HIV treatment? . . . . . . 17
20. How can I tell if my HIV treatment is working? . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Human Rights, Stigma and Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
21. Are there laws in New York State that protect the
confidentiality and human rights of people living with HIV? . . . 18
22. What can we do to reduce stigma against people living
with HIV? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
,
,Table of Contents
Part I: Questions and Answers for Young People and Students . . . . . 1
1. What is the history of HIV/AIDS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. What is the difference between HIV and AIDS? . . . . . . . . . . .2
3. What should I know about HIV prevention and sex? . . . . . . . . 3
4. What should I know about HIV prevention and substance use? . .4
5. If I need to write a school report about HIV /AIDS,
where can I find information and statistics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. What is the New York State Youth Sexual Health Plan? . . . . . . .5
7. How can I get involved in helping others and being a leader? . . .5
8. Will we ever see an end to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic? . . . . . . . .5
Part II: Questions and Answers About HIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
1. How is HIV transmitted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. What are the ways that HIV cannot be transmitted? . . . . . . . . .8
3. Can a woman living with HIV pass the virus on to her baby? . . . .8
4. What does Undetectable = Untransmittable
(otherwise known as U=U) mean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5. What can a person do to avoid getting HIV
through sexual behavior? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. How can a person get condoms to prevent HIV? . . . . . . . . . 10
7. What can a person do to avoid HIV through drug use? . . . . . . 11
8. How can a person who injects drugs or other substances
obtain sterile injection equipment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
9. What can people who are living with HIV do to avoid passing
the virus to others? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10. What can I do if I think I was exposed to HIV? . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
11. Why is HIV testing important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
12. How does HIV testing work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
13. Where can I get an HIV test? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
14. How often should a person be tested? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
15. What does it mean to have a negative test result? . . . . . . . . 14
16. What does it mean to have a test that results in an
HIV diagnosis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
, Importance of Health Care and Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
17. How does HIV affect a person’s health? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
18. What is the treatment for HIV? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
19. How can a person get help paying for HIV treatment? . . . . . . 17
20. How can I tell if my HIV treatment is working? . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Human Rights, Stigma and Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
21. Are there laws in New York State that protect the
confidentiality and human rights of people living with HIV? . . . 18
22. What can we do to reduce stigma against people living
with HIV? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
