Living with HIV

Getting an HIV diagnosis can change your life. You may feel sad, scared, or angry. All of these feelings are normal.

With the right treatment, you can live a long, healthy life. Treatment also helps protect your partners.

You don’t have to figure this out on your own. Health care providers, counselors, and social service staff can help you through the early stages. Many of these supports are available at your clinic.

HIV treatment means taking medicine every day to control the virus. HIV is a type of virus called a retrovirus. The treatment is called ART.

ART is recommended for everyone with HIV, no matter how long they have had it or how healthy they feel. Take your medicine every day, exactly as your health care provider tells you.

In North Dakota, most HIV care is provided by private infectious disease providers.

Telling your partners you have HIV before sex or sharing needles can feel uncomfortable. But it is important. It helps protect you under the law. It also helps your partners make choices to protect their health.

You should also tell current or past partners if you are diagnosed with another sexually transmitted infection (STI). This helps them know they should get tested too.

If you take your HIV medicine every day and your viral load becomes undetectable, you cannot pass HIV to a partner through sex. This is called “Undetectable = Untransmittable” (U=U).

Keeping your viral load undetectable is one of the best things you can do for your health and to protect others.