HIV Prevention & Support
We have walked alongside our communities and people living with HIV and our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Sistergirl and Brotherboy people across Queensland for over 40 years. Being the supports you need, changing to meet our diverse communities needs.
Our community-led initiatives have been co-designed to empower communities to take control of their own sexual health and wellbeing, including stories, education, and tools to help prevent HIV transmission, reduce stigma and discrimination and support people living with and ageing with HIV.
We also offer Wrapped 'N Ready, a service that provides free, safe sex supplies, including condoms and dental dams, discreetly delivered to you or your organisation. Using condoms with water-based lube can prevent the transmission of HIV and most other STIs, ensuring you can enjoy safer sexual experiences.
Check out our page below to learn more about these initiatives and how we can help you maintain your sexual health. We continue to walk alongside our LGBTIQ+SB communities towards increasing education on sexual health and wellbeing, HIV and STIs, reducing stigma and supporting our people and communities living and ageing with HIV.
People living with HIV (PLHIV) no longer need to live in fear of having an active sex life. Over time research has evolved and there is now a number of ways PLHIV can protect their sexual partners from contracting HIV. These strategies include:
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Undetectable viral load
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Treatment as prevention (TasP)
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Undetectable = Untransmissible (U=U)
Starting Antiretroviral therapy early and maintaining control of viral load helps prevent the risk of passing on HIV. In other words if someone is HIV+ and has an undetectable viral load it is virtually impossible to pass on the virus.
QC is a partner of the Prevention Access Campaign which is a multi-agency health equity initiative to end the dual epidemics of HIV and HIV-related stigma by expanding access to HIV prevention and empowering people with and vulnerable to HIV with accurate and meaningful information about their social, sexual, and reproductive health.
Prevention Access Campaign’s Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) is a community of HIV advocates, activists, researchers, and community partners around the world uniting to clarify and disseminate the revolutionary but largely unknown fact that people living with HIV on effective treatment do not sexually transmit HIV.
U=U was launched in early 2016 by a group of people living with HIV who created a groundbreaking consensus statement with global experts to clear up confusion about risk and to clarify the science of U=U. That Statement was the genesis of the U=U movement that is sharing the U=U message to dismantle HIV stigma, improve the lives of people living with HIV, and bring us closer to ending the epidemic.
TasP - Treatment as Prevention
Free Condoms
Condoms used with water-based lube can prevent the transmission of HIV & most STIs*
Order free condoms or dams* here (discretely delivered to your door).
PrEP
U=U, Undetectable equals Untransmissible
People who take HIV medication & have an undetectable viral load* for at least six months, can’t pass on HIV to their sexual partners.
To learn more, click here.
Sexual Health Check-ups
Test every three months.
Looking after your sexual health is important, and getting regular sexual health tests are a vital part of this. You should aim to get a sexual health test once every three months – especially if you change partners. You should get a sexual health check-up immediately if you have been told that a sexual partner has an STI.
A comprehensive STI check-up includes providing a sample of your blood and urine, as well as swabs of your mouth and bum.
Some clinics test at no cost.
Sixteen clinics across Queensland can provide STI screening at no cost without a Medicare card. See a full list, including 'Medicare Ineligible Sexual Health Testing Sites' here.
PEP
PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a month-long course of drugs to help prevent HIV infection that is taken after a possible exposure to HIV (for example, a condom breaking).
The sooner someone starts PEP, the better. It is most effective when started within 24 hours, but it must be started within 72 hours after a possible exposure to.
PEP is prescription medication and can be accessed at Public Hospital Emergency Departments or Sexual Health Clinics.
Find your closest location here.
To learn more about PEP, click here.
Additional Support
World AIDS Day
*STI: Sexually Transmitted Infection.
*HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus that attacks the immune system (The immune system fights infections & diseases in a person's body). HIV is mostly passed on during anal sex when no protection is used.
*Undetectable viral load: A HIV viral load is how the amount of HIV is measured in a person’s blood. This is done by means of a viral load test. Each person living with HIV has different levels of HIV in their blood. Effective HIV treatment can significantly reduce a person’s viral load to a point where it is classed as undetectable.
*Dam: A dam is a square piece of stretchy latex and works by acting as a barrier during oral sex. You place the dam between your mouth and your partner's genitals or anus.