There are many ways to protect yourself and others from HIV infection.
Speak to your local sexual health clinic or your GP about the best ways to reduce the risks.
Use condoms
Use condoms correctly and every time you have sex. This helps protect against HIV and other STIs. Condoms can be used for vaginal and anal sex, and for oral sex performed on men.
HIV can be passed on before ejaculation. It's very important condoms are put on before any sexual contact between the penis, vagina or anus.
You can get free condoms from:
- STI or GUM (genitourinary medicine) clinics
- some sexual health charity organisations
- many third-level colleges
Where to get free condoms - sexualwellbeing.ie
Use lubricant
Lubricant can prevent a condom tearing. Only use water-based lubricants, such as KY Jelly. Do not use oil-based lubricants, such as Vaseline or massage and baby oil. These can weaken the latex in condoms and can cause them to break or tear.
Lubricant can also make sex safer by reducing the risk of vaginal or anal tears caused by dryness or friction.
Do not share needles and injecting equipment
If you inject drugs, do not share needles, syringes or injecting equipment such as spoons and swabs. Also do not share the drugs or liquids used to dilute them.
If you use heroin, consider enrolling in a methadone programme. Methadone can be prescribed as a liquid that you drink. This reduces your risk of getting HIV.
Many community-based services offer needle exchange programmes, where used needles can be exchanged for clean ones.
Talk to a GP or drug counsellor about methadone and needle exchange programmes.
There are needle exchange services in most towns and counties.
Find needle exchange services - drugs.ie
Make sure a clean, sterilised needle is used if you're getting a tattoo or piercing.
Test for HIV
Get tested if there is a chance you have HIV. If you test positive, start treatment as soon as possible. This can prevent transmission of HIV to your sexual partner or partners.
If you are at risk of HIV, you need to test regularly. Ask your GP or STI clinic about regular HIV testing.
HIV testing is available for free through the HSE home STI testing service.
Use HIV medicine
There are 3 ways that HIV medicine can be used to prevent HIV, depending on your situation:
- pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
- post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)
- treatment as prevention (TasP)
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is taking medicine before having sex (pre-exposure) to prevent HIV (prophylaxis).
If you're HIV negative, you may be able to take this medicine to reduce your risk of getting the virus.
In Ireland PrEP comes as a tablet. Some people can get the medicine free of charge.
To access free PrEP through the HSE you will need 1 of these cards:
You can get PrEP in some public sexual health services and through some GP surgeries and private providers.
Where to get PrEP and how to take it - sexualwellbeing.ie
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is taking HIV medicine as soon as possible after a likely exposure (post-exposure) to HIV. This is to prevent HIV (prophylaxis).
You need to start taking the medicine as soon as possible and within 72 hours of likely exposure to HIV. The course lasts 28 days. You take the medicine every day.
You can get PEP from:
- many STI or GUM clinics
- an emergency department (ED) - outside of clinic hours
You may have some side effects such as nausea (feeling sick) or vomiting (getting sick). Side effects usually disappear after a few days.
PEP medicine is free. You may have to pay a fee for attending ED.
Where to get PEP - sexualwellbeing.ie
Treatment as prevention (TasP)
If you have HIV, taking HIV medicines as prescribed can stop your sexual partner from getting the virus.
Treatment reduces your viral load. This means it lowers the amount of HIV virus in your blood. If your viral load gets really low, it's undetectable. If you have an undetectable viral load for 6 months or more there is almost no risk you will pass HIV on to your sexual partner during sex.
This is called undetectable=untransmittable (U=U).
Get screened for HIV in pregnancy
If you are pregnant, you'll be offered a blood test to check if you have HIV as part of antenatal screening.
If you have HIV and are not on treatment, HIV can pass to your baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.