HIV and travelling

[mansman]

I am going travelling soon, what injections/precautions do I need to be aware of whilst travelling to countries that have higher incidences of hiv?

[Dr Helen Webberley]

Hi, HIV can only be passed through injections of bodily fluids. So the best advice is to be very careful of any sexual contact - whether it is vaginal, oral or anal contact. I would suggest using barrier protection for any sexual contact.

You can obviously get male condoms to protect the penis, but you can also get female covers called Oral Dams that cover the female genitalia for any oral sex. Other ways of catching HIV are through sharing needles with drug use, and using dirty needles for tattoos etc.

In general, you don't need to be concerned with normal day to day activity, and you can't catch HIV from just touching someone who has it, bodily fluids have to go from one person into another.

I hope this helps, Dr Webberley