Below you will find some general information about sex and HIV transmission (giving or getting the HIV virus) and links to on line and printable pamphlets that discuss safer sex in practical ways. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via phone or email, your question and answers are confidential. General Safer Sex...

These infections occur only when a person’s immune system has been seriously weakened by HIV. A normal CD4+ cell count in an HIV-negative person is around 500 to 1,500 cells in each cubic millimetre (mm3) of blood. As your CD4+ cell count gets lower, your immune system becomes unable to fight off a number of common viruses, bacteria and parasites. These...

Gay and bisexual men account for 76% of all AIDS cases in Canada since records started being kept and 45% of new HIV infections each year. The reasons for such disproportionate numbers (compared to the general population) are many and complex. Since the beginning of the epidemic homophobia and HIV/AIDS fear and stigma have magnified each other, creating...

The incidence of new infections in Canadian women is increasing. Women may not see themselves as ‘at-risk’ for HIV infection and may not get tested or be aware of how to protect themselves. The main risk factors for women are injection drug use and sex with heterosexual men. Some determinants of health affecting the increasing incidence of infection in women...

Once transformed, the viral DNA will travel into the T-cell’s nucleus and sew itself to the cell’s genetic material (a process similar to placing a “bug” in a computer software program). At this point, if the T-cell is activated, instead of performing T-cell functions, it will start producing and shedding new virus. At this stage, several...

The basic structure of HIV is similar to other viruses. HIV has a core of genetic material surrounded by a protective sheath, called a capsid. The genetic material in the core is RNA, ribonucleic acid, which contains the information that the virus needs to reproduce and perform other functions. You can think of RNA as the set of rules the virus follows in order...