The Basics of HIV Prevention
Key Points Protect yourself during sex : To reduce your risk of getting HIV, use condoms correctly every time you have sex. Protect yourself if you inject drugs : Do not inject drugs. If you do, use only sterile injection equipment and water, and never share your equipment with others. Protect yourself by taking PrEP : If you do not have HIV but are at risk of getting HIV, talk to your health care provider about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP involves taking a specific HIV medicine every day or an injectable HIV medicine every two months to reduce the risk of getting HIV through sex or injection drug use. Protect others if you have HIV : Take HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) as prescribed by your doctor. ART can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood (called viral load) to the point where a test cannot detect it (called an undetectable viral load). If you have an undetectable viral load, you will not transmit HI...