Patient information and directions. Communicable Disease Prevention leaflet issued by the Swedish Society for Communicable Disease Prevention and Control.
Risk of infection
You have an HIV infection. HIV infects via blood, through sexual intercourse, and from mother to child during pregnancy and delivery. Infection via the blood can happen through transfusion, puncture wounds caused by an infected person or through shared injecting devices. There is also a risk of infection if infected blood comes into contact with mucous membranes. HIV does not infect through social interaction. An HIV infection is never cured; the infected person carries the virus throughout their life. People who are undergoing treatment can also pass on the infection.
Symptoms
In more than half of all cases, HIV gives rise to symptoms early on, 1–4 weeks after infection. Symptoms can be fever, rashes, throat problems, swollen lymph glands and headaches, and usually last for 1–2 weeks. When the immune system has become weakened after several years, other symptoms occur, and eventually various infectious diseases, which means that AIDS has developed. Treatment for HIV can slow down this process.
Children with HIV
Small children are vulnerable to infection and should not be placed in ordinary preschools. The doctor responsible for treatment is to inform the guardian of an HIV-infected child of the guidelines that apply to children with HIV in preschools/schools. The guardian(s) must give their permission for information to be provided about the infection.
Work
Restrictions on work are unusual. The doctor responsible for treatment will assess, in consultation with the County Medical Officer, whether a doctor, dentist or other medical professional who comes into contact with blood in their work should be given special directions regarding their work.
Condoms are good protection
A condom provides good protection against HIV and other sexually transmissible diseases if it is used throughout sexual intercourse.
Hygiene advice
Take care to bandage wounds, even very small ones. If someone helps you, this person is to use plastic gloves. Pack bloodstained materials with care before throwing them away. Bloodstains on e.g. floors are to be wiped with chlorine-based bleach or similar.
Directions
• You must attend the appointments and tests that the doctor responsible for your treatment thinks are necessary.
• If you seek medical or dental care, you must let them know that your blood is infectious.
• Guardians are to follow the local recommendations that apply to placement of HIV- infected children in child care/schools.
• If anyone gets your blood in their eyes, nose or mouth, or on their skin, rinse with water. Skin that has been exposed to blood can be disinfected using e.g. chlorhexidine in alcohol. You must inform the person who has been exposed to a risk of infection by your blood that the blood is infected with HIV and that they should immediately get in touch with an infectious disease clinic for a decision on preventive treatment.
• Do not share personal items like razor blades, electric razors, toothbrushes and so on.
• If you inject drugs, you must have your own needles and syringes and not allow others to use them. You may not use the same mixing cup, and injecting devices must be stored so that they do not risk infecting others.
• You should not get a tattoo, have your ears pierced or have any other treatment that involves the use of sharp tools and which can cause bleeding. If you want to do this anyway, you must say that you have HIV.
• Before having sex, you are obliged to inform your prospective sexual partner that you have HIV. This applies to intercourse in which the penis enters the vagina, to anal intercourse, to oral sex and other sexual activity that involves a risk of spreading infection.
• In intercourse in which the penis enters the vagina, rectum or mouth, a condom is to be used throughout intercourse.
• You may not give blood or donate sperm, eggs, organs or tissue for transplant.
• Additionally, an HIV-positive woman may not breastfeed her child under Chapter 2 Section 2 of the Communicable Diseases Act (Smittskyddslagen).
The disease with which you are infected is a hazard to public health under the Swedish Communicable Diseases Act (Smittskyddslagen). You are therefore obliged to follow the directions given by your doctor. If you request, the County Medical Officer (Smittskyddsläkaren) must reconsider the directions.