Today, some 40 million men, women and children are estimated to be infected with hiv. The hiv-infection eventually leads to AIDS, which entails one’s natural defences against infectious diseases becoming weakened.
Hiv is not transmitted via air, food, water, objects or when touching another person. Sharing a house, a shower, toilet etc. with an hiv-infected person does not pose an increased risk of becoming infected. You can also hug and caress an hiv-infected person without any need for concern.
On the other hand, hiv can be transmitted, e.g., through sexual intercourse, blood transfusions, tattoo and acupuncture needles, piercing tools, injections or by means of other non-sterile dental and surgical instruments. There are tragic examples of how people have become infected with hiv after seemingly innocent injections or blood transfusions in connection with, for example, accidents. This risk is present above all in countries with lacking hygienic standards within medical and dental care.

Casual sexual contacts pose a considerable risk!
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Swedes spend their holidays in South-east Asia. Some of them become infected with hiv. In many tourist areas more than half of the prostitutes are infected with hiv. This is also true in Africa and South America.
Prostitutes are not only to be found within the brothels. It is just as common that the tourist meets someone who seems like an “innocent family girl” at a bar and is led on to believe that the love is genuine and mutual. It is worth mentioning that in these cultures, “family girls” are typically not sitting alone at a bar.
Remember, you can never see that someone is infected with hiv, nor if someone is a prostitute or drug addict. If you cannot or will not abstain from casual sexual contacts, condoms are an obvious must on every occasion. Furthermore, they serve to protect your from other venereal diseases and unwanted pregnancies.
If you suspect or are worried that you might have been infected, you can be tested at no cost at health care centres and infection clinics. However, it can take several months before antibodies against the virus can be seen.
An hiv-infected person bears the infection for the rest of his life. At present, it is only possible to slow the progress of AIDS in the body.

There is still no vaccine that protects against hiv.