You will need to call or come back about a couple of days after the test to get your test result.Īt some clinics and doctors’ offices, you can get a rapid HIV test, which can give you a preliminary result that day. Talk to your healthcare provider or an emergency room doctor right away if you think you’ve recently been exposed to HIV.įor a standard HIV test, a blood or oral fluid sample is taken and sent to a laboratory. Payment is available for sexual assault victims. PEP can be expensive and insurance coverage may vary, but options for payment assistance can be found on the NYSDOH website. For PEP to work, every dose of each medicine prescribed must be taken, for the full period of time. The DOH has a fact sheet that a person who has been exposed to HIV can take to the emergency room to explain his or her special need. Decisions regarding initiation of PEP beyond 36 hours but no longer than 72 hours after the exposure are made on a case by case basis, keeping in mind that the medicine is most effective the closer it can be taken to the exposure. PEP should be started as soon as possible, ideally within 2 hours of exposure. Whether a person becomes infected after being exposed to HIV depends on how the virus enters the body and the amount of virus that enters the body.įor recent potential exposures to HIV, New York State Department of Health’s HIV Clinical Guidelines recommend post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) which involves taking a combination of HIV medicines for 28 days. But it is important to know that you can be infected by a single exposure to HIV-infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluids. With testing of the blood supply since 1985, there is no longer a risk of getting HIV when receiving a transfusion in the United States. Since HIV is also found in breast milk, women living with HIV should not breastfeed their babies.īlood Transfusion: At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, some people became a person with an HIV diagnosis from receiving a blood transfusion. A second HIV test is also recommended late in the pregnancy to identify if the woman was exposed to HIV during the pregnancy. It is very important for all women to know their HIV status before they become pregnant, or very early in their pregnancy, so that they can take full advantage of these medicines. Medication is also given to the infant right after birth and for the first weeks of life. There are medicines that a woman living with HIV should take during pregnancy, labor, and delivery to protect her health and greatly reduce the chance that she will pass the virus to her baby. Mother-to-Child Transmission: A woman who is living with HIV can pass the virus to her baby during: (Contact your healthcare provider or call our office to schedule an appointment for a prescription.) To find syringe exchange programs near you, visit People who inject drugs may also consider taking PrEP, a daily medication that can protect an HIV negative person from getting HIV. By always using sterile injection equipment and not sharing equipment can help protect people who inject drugs from HIV. Since blood may be present in the needle, syringe, cooker or water used during injecting, HIV can be easily passed when people share any of these equipment items. Substance Use Transmission: Sharing needles and works during injection drug use is a high-risk behavior for passing HIV from one person to another. (Contact your healthcare provider or call our office to schedule an appointment for a prescription.)Ī person living with HIV who is on HIV treatment and virally suppressed for 6 months or longer has effectively no risk of passing HIV to a partner through sex. Pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, a once-a-day pill HIV negative individuals can take to protect themselves.Antiretroviral treatment for the person living with HIV.Condom use (Free condoms are available at our clinic for those over 18 years of age.).The risk of transmission for any of these behaviors can be lowered in a variety of ways, including: If either partner is living with HIV, the virus may be transmitted, especially if blood is present during sex. The sexual behavior with the highest risk is anal intercourse. Vaginal intercourse is a higher risk activity for passing HIV. The risk of transmission depends on the type of sexual behavior. Sexual Transmission: HIV is spread when blood, semen or vaginal fluids from a person living with HIV who is not virally suppressed gets into the bloodstream of another person.
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