The HIV virus is found in certain bodily fluids of an infected person. The fluids that contain enough virus to transmit infection are blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. Other bodily fluids (sweat, tears, saliva and urine) contain negligible amounts of virus and involve no practical risk of infection.

HIV is diagnosed through a blood screening. An HIV infection can in some cases be detected as early as 1–2 weeks after  infection, but the incubation period varies a lot from person to person. Anyone who has been at risk of infection should therefore be re-tested 12 weeks after the time of potential infection to confirm a negative test result.

There is no cure for HIV, and treatment currently involves lifelong daily medication. Progress in recent years of scientific research has achieved that fewer tablets and lower doses need to be taken daily. HIV treatment is always a combination therapy with multiple active ingredients, either in one tablet or as a combination of two or three pills.

A person who is successfully treated for HIV, will have such a small amount of viable virus in their body that it cannot be detected. These persons can not infect other people with HIV, will not become sick from the virus (will never develop AIDS) and will have a normal life expectancy.

​AIDS is an abbreviation for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS is the result of an untreated HIV infection, where the virus has damaged the patient’s immune system severely. Different criteria for diagnosis exist in different countries and regions

For more detailed information about HIV and how it is transmitted and treated, please visit helsenorge.no.

Below you will find links to further reading about HIV and AIDS in English. Please note that these are external web sites over which we have no control.

The Global Network of People living with HIV and Aids (GNP+) is the only worldwide network representing all people living with HIV and Aids. As a network based on emancipation and self-determination, GNP+ nurtures the development of six fully independent regional networks of people living with HIV covering Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America.

The Body is a US based web site whose mission is to use the Web to lower barriers between patients and clinicians and to demystify HIV/AIDS and its treatment. It also aims to improve patients‘ quality of life and foster community through human connection.

Gay.com is a US based web site that targets the LGBTQ+ community. Their pages are updated on news about HIV, treatment and medication.

Unaids is the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, bringing together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations to the global AIDS response. Their website contains information in many languages.

IAVI is an international non-profit organization working to accelerate the development of preventive AIDS vaccines and assure that they will be available worldwide.

This is not a complete collection of web-resources, so please feel free to recommend pages you think should be here. Please contact us if any of the links do not work.