PCP HIV AIDS Toolkit/HIV Myths and Facts

HIV Myths and Facts

• A person who looks and feels healthy may still have HIV.
• Taking oral contraceptives, or birth control pills, can protect a woman from getting HIV.
• In the Philippines an estimated12,000 people have HIV.
• If everything feels OK after sex, you can not have HIV.
• You can tell if someone has HIV by looking at them.
• It is better not to find out if you have AIDS, since there is no cure.
• A mother can pass HIV to her baby.
• 42 million people in the world are living with AIDS.
• The only way to know if someone has HIV is a blood test.
• Using a condom can help protect you from the transmission of HIV.
• There are medicines that can slow the progression of AIDS.
• You can get HIV from an insect bite.
• You can get AIDS or HIV the first time you have sex.
• HIV is not spread through hugging, kissing or holding hands.
• It is dangerous to touch people with HIV/AIDS.
• HIV/AIDS affects people of all races, sexual orientation and genders.
• AIDS is a disease that affects mostly white people. AIDS is only a disease of immoral people, such as homosexuals and prostitutes,
• There is NO cure for AIDS.
• Doctors and religious leaders in our country have cured AIDS.
• There is no AIDS in the Philippines.