If you are unsure about whether or not your sexual partner is uninfected, protect yourself with a latex condom and a spermicide such as nonoxynol-9. Never use needles or syringes for any drug, including steroids, unless under a doctor's care. Birth control pills and diaphragms cannot. But you must use the condoms the right way. Condoms are not foolproof, because they can break, tear or slip off.
Experts recommend using only latex condoms for disease protection.
You cannot get HIV by giving blood. The risk of being infected with HIV from a blood transfusion is very low. Since donor interviews for HIV risk began in 1983, and HIV antibody testing began in 1985, the risk of HIV-contaminated blood entering the blood supply has dropped dramatically. Estimates of the chance of receiving an HIV-infected transfusion vary from one in 250,000 to one in 40,000 units of blood. A Red Cross study reported in 1989 that the risk was one in 153,000.