BBVAware Program Information Pack

Avoid sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment.

Use sterile, unused syringes and injection equipment every time you inject. This means all equipment tourniquets/filters etc. not just syringes.

Utilise Needle and Syringe Programs (NSP) in your local area.

Find secondary NSP outlets including pharmacies, community houses and sexual health clinics.

Get tested regularly for HIV and other Sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Get tested for HIV as soon as possible to know your status during pregnancy.

If you have HIV, and take HIV medicine as prescribed throughout pregnancy and childbirth, and give HIV medicine to your baby for 4 to 6 weeks after giving birth, your risk of transmitting HIV to your baby can be 1% or less.

After delivery, you can prevent transmitting HIV to your baby by avoiding breastfeeding, since breast milk contains HIV.

Choose sexual activity that is less risky than anal or vaginal sex. There is little to no risk of getting HIV through oral sex.

You can’t get HIV from sexual activities that don’t involve contact with body fluids (semen, vaginal fluid, or blood).

If you have another sexually transmitted disease (STD), you are more likely to get HIV. Getting tested and treated for other STDs can lower your chances of getting HIV.

Use a condom! Condoms are very effective in preventing HIV and many other STDs when used the right way every time.

PrEP is medicine people at risk for HIV take to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use.

PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99% when taken as prescribed.

PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV from injecting drugs by at least 74% when taken as prescribed.

PrEP is much less effective when it is not taken as prescribed.

PrEP reaches maximum protection from HIV for receptive anal sex at about 7 days of daily use.

For receptive vaginal sex and injection drug use, PrEP reaches maximum protection at about 21 days of daily use.

PEP is a course of antiviral medication you can take to prevent HIV infection if you have potentially been exposed to the virus.

PEP must be started within 72 hours of possible exposure to HIV.

The sooner you start PEP, the better. Every hour counts. If you’re prescribed PEP, you’ll need to take it daily for 28 days.

PEP is useful for workplace exposures such as needlestick injuries.

Stigma and discrimination are barriers to BBV testing and this delays treatment, which in turn increases the amount of the virus in your blood.

People living with BBVs are still discriminated against on a daily basis.

Don’t buy into this discrimination, challenge the misconceptions, talk openly, get yourself tested and encourage others to get tested as well.

Take control of your life, your health and your future!