HIV is transmitted through certain body fluids


How Do You Get HIV Or AIDS?

Page Highlights:

How Do You Get HIV?

HIV is found in specific human body fluids. If any of those fluids enter your body, you can become infected with HIV.

Which Body Fluids Contain HIV?

HIV lives and reproduces in blood and other body fluids. We know that the following fluids can contain high levels of HIV:

  • Blood
  • Semen (cum)
  • Pre-seminal fluid (pre-cum)
  • Breast milk
  • Vaginal fluids
  • Rectal (anal) mucous

Other body fluids and waste products-like feces, nasal fluid, saliva, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit-don’t contain enough HIV to infect you, unless they have blood mixed in them and you have significant and direct contact with them.

For more information, see CDC’s Which body fluids transmit HIV?

Healthcare workers may be exposed to some other body fluids with high concentrations of HIV, including:

How Is HIV Transmitted Through Body Fluids?

HIV is transmitted through body fluids in very specific ways:


  • During sexual contact: When you have anal, oral, or vaginal sex with a partner, you will usually have contact with your partner’s body fluids. If your partner has HIV, those body fluids can deliver the virus into your bloodstream through microscopic breaks or rips in the delicate linings of your vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or mouth. Rips in these areas are very common and mostly unnoticeable. HIV can also enter through open sores, like those caused by herpes or syphilis, if infected body fluids get in them.
    You need to know that it’s much easier to get HIV (or to give it to someone else), if you have a sexually transmitted disease (STD). For more information, see CDC’s What is the link between STDs and HIV infection?

  • During pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding: Babies have constant contact with their mother’s body fluids-including amniotic fluid and blood-throughout pregnancy and childbirth. After birth, infants can get HIV from drinking infected breast milk.

  • As a result of injection drug use: Injecting drugs puts you in contact with blood-your own and others, if you share needles and “works”. Needles or drugs that are contaminated with HIV-infected blood can deliver the virus directly into your body.

  • As a result of occupational exposure: Healthcare workers have the greatest risk for this type of HIV transmission. If you work in a healthcare setting, you can come into contact with infected blood or other fluids through needle sticks or cuts. A few healthcare workers have been infected when body fluids splashed into their eyes, mouth, or into an open sore or cut.

  • As a result of a blood transfusion with infected blood or an organ transplant from an infected donor: Screening requirements make both of these forms of HIV transmission very rare in the United States.

How Do You Get AIDS?

You can develop AIDS when HIV damages your immune system so badly that it can no longer protect you from infections and disease.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can HIV be transmitted through oral sex?

While the possibility of transmitting HIV through oral sex is very low, it is possible to transmit the virus to a non-infected person during oral sexual contact. For more information, see NIH’s HIV Infection and AIDS: An Overview.

Can I get AIDS from sharing a cup or shaking hands with someone who has HIV or AIDS?

HIV is found only in body fluids, so you cannot get HIV by shaking someone’s hand or giving them a hug (or by using the same toilet or towel). While HIV is found in saliva, sharing cups or utensils has never been shown to transmit HIV. For more information, see CDC’s Which body fluids transmit HIV?

Can HIV be transmitted through an insect bite?

No. The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person’s or animal’s blood into the next person bitten. For more information, see CDC’s HIV and Its Transmission.

Click Here For More Frequently Asked Questions

Fact Sheets & Print Materials