The history of HIV

We’ve come a long way since HIV first appeared back in the 1980’s. It was a totally different story then – people didn’t know anything about the infection. Most people called it AIDS then and if you got it, it usually meant death.

Thankfully, things are much different now. People know a lot more about HIV and how to treat it, which means that people with HIV can live longer, healthier lives.

But just because things have changed doesn’t mean that we don’t need to worry about HIV anymore. Getting HIV can still affect every part of our lives – our health, our families, our sex, our relationships, our jobs and our socialising, and although it may not end up killing us, it will still change our lives forever.

This is your essential guide to HIV. It’s for men who have sex with men and has all the stuff you need to know about HIV including how it gets into your body, how you can protect yourself from it, where to get tested and how you can keep yourself healthy if you do pick up the infection.