Can You Acquire HIV From Sleeping With Someone?

The phrase “sleeping with someone” is often associated by the phrase “having sex with someone”. When a man and a woman lie together and share a single bed, their sexual urge maximizes resulting to an intimate sexual intercourse if not controlled. So if that is the case, you can expect that you will acquire HIV from sleeping with someone who is infected by the virus.

Sexual transmission is one of the three main causes of the infection of HIV to a person. It has been described from men to men, men to women, women to men or women to women sexual transmissions through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. If you are having unprotected sexual intercourse, there is higher risk of getting HIV infection. It is because genital secretions have the most number of HIV viruses. When it enters the body and come in contact with vagina, rectum, and mouth it will then spread the viral infection. Viral infection caused by HIV usually targets the body’s immune system that effects to sickness because the body’s defense mechanism is weakened.

To prevent it, the best way is to avoid sexual contact or the so-called abstinence. You may also perform safe sex by using condoms or latex barriers if abstinence is not an option. The use of condoms for penis (male reproductive organ) is to prevent exposure to fluids during pre-ejaculatory and ejaculatory periods. It is also useful in oral sex especially for cunnilingus (oral contact with the vagina) to prevent female secretions to have a direct contact with the mouth. Also, it increases the risk of having HIV from sleeping with someone if that “someone” is homosexual or bisexual, or if that someone wanted to involve you to any kind of sex without even having knowledge to his status. Having multiple partners is also a factor of having the risk in catching the virus.

On the other hand, you have a lesser chance of acquiring HIV from sleeping with someone that is monogamous (means he has only one partner – you) rest assured that you are not very active in your sex life, he is not involving to drug addiction that uses needles and syringes, he hasn’t undergone blood transfusion or that person hasn’t been infected by his mother during pregnancy. Another case is that you are only sleeping together and not doing any physical or intimate contact, the risk of having HIV virus is very minimal. Social activities like kissing, hugging, dancing or shaking hands with a person that has HIV are not infectious.