HIV treatment
If you have HIV and take your medicines correctly every day, you can lead a normal life and even live as long as someone without HIV.
Take your medicines the way the doctor tells you to. Discuss with a doctor which medicine suits you best.
If you are not treated, you can infect someone through unprotected sex or through blood. You can infect your baby during pregnancy or delivery or when breast-feeding. With the right treatment, women with HIV can have healthy children.
Healthy lifestyle
Take care of your health:
- Eat healthily. This improves your resistance to diseases.
- Take exercise.
- Keep cigarettes, drugs and alcohol to a minimum.
- Rest well at night. It will reduce stress.
Social contact
You cannot infect someone through social contact. You do not have to be scared if, for example, you share a glass or plate with someone or you touch or kiss someone.
No longer risk of infection
If you take your medicines correctly every day, the amount of HIV in your blood (viral load) lowers. After a few months, it can often no longer be traced, though the virus is still in your body. There is then almost no risk that you will infect someone else.
Under certain conditions, it is possible for you to have sex without a condom with your steady partner (steady relationship) who does not have HIV:
- If you take your medicines correctly every day, and
- If, for at least 6 months, your viral load can no longer be detected, and
- If your viral load has been checked less than 6 months ago, and
- If you have no other STI and the mucous membrane of your mouth, anus, penis or vagina is not damaged.
Talk to a doctor and your partner if you want to have sex without a condom.
Telling someone you have HIV
Living with HIV is not always easy. It might help if you talk with someone about HIV. You are not forced to tell people you have HIV.
