Anonymous testing is not available everywhere. HIV spreads through blood, semen, and virginal secretions from infected people. People get HIV from contact with these fluids. Contact can come from unsafe sex. It can also come from used needles and syringes.
Infected women can pass the virus to their babies during pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding.
Some people who receive blood products from 1978 to 1985 got infected blood. Now blood banks test all blood for HIV before they use it. People don't get HIV through everyday contact with people at school, work and home or anywhere else. People don't get it from clothes, phones or toilet seats. HIV isn't passed on by forks, cups or other things used by someone who has it.