Your wellbeing starts with knowing.
Knowing your HIV status is about caring for yourself, your loved ones and your community.
Approximately 23,000 people in Ontario live with HIV, and hundreds more are diagnosed each year.
Understanding your HIV status is the first step in taking control of your own health. Many people living with undiagnosed HIV may go without symptoms for years. But we’ve made so much progress.
Thanks to various HIV testing options, highly effective prevention (e.g.: PrEP or PEP) and advanced treatments (e.g.: ART), new HIV infections can be prevented. Most people who live with HIV and who receive effective treatment can have longer, healthier lives and cannot sexually transmit the virus.
Successful treatment helps those living with HIV lead long and healthy lives.
HIV can affect anyone.
Regardless of your age, sex, race, gender or sexual orientation, you’re at a risk of getting infected with HIV. Some communities still face higher rates of HIV today due to historical systemic inequities and barriers to prevention, treatment and support.
Populations most affected by HIV include:
- People who inject drugs
- Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, including cis and trans men
- African, Caribbean and Black people
- Indigenous people
- Cis and trans women from populations with higher rates of HIV, or who face higher risk exposures to HIV through sexual or drug-using partners
HIV treatment reduces the risk of passing it on.
The sooner a person becomes aware of their status and starts treatment, the better. Although there is no cure for HIV yet, consistent treatment can suppress, or reduce, the amount of HIV in a person’s blood to the point where it can’t be passed on to another person through sex or pregnancy.
Ending HIV is a group effort.
Healthcare professionals, public health experts, policymakers, researchers, people living with HIV and those with lived experience from across the HIV sector in Ontario, across Canada and around the world are working together to improve the lives of people living with and at risk of HIV.
