School nurses are at the forefront of providing accurate and timely information to students, parents, and school staff to help develop and promote students’ skills for making healthy lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, many myths and misperceptions about HIV and its transmission have emerged that are not based on scientific findings. To assist school nurses in their role as health educators, the following information may prove useful in dispelling myths and rumors about HIV.

Myth: A person can get HIV by sharing exercise equipment or playing sports with an HIV-positive person. Contact with sweat or tears has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.

Myth: A person can get HIV by kissing an HIV-infected person. Casual contact through closed-mouth or “social” kissing is not a risk for transmission of HIV. While no cases of AIDS have been attributed to any kind of kissing, there is a potential for contact with blood through open-mouthed or “French” kissing, and students should be cautioned about that possibility.

Myth: A person can get HIV by breathing the air around them. Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well in the environment, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. HIV cannot be transmitted through toilet seats or doorknob handles; touching, hugging, holding hands, or cheek kissing an HIV-infected person; or sharing eating utensils with an HIV-infected person.

Myth: A person can get HIV through biting or blood-sucking insects. Studies conducted by researchers at CDC and elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through insects — even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large numbers of mosquitoes. Studies have shown that an insect does not inject its own, or a previous victim’s blood into a person, but it does inject its saliva, which does transmit such diseases as yellow fever or malaria.

Myth: HIV/AIDS is a gay disease. Any person can be susceptible to HIV/AIDS, regardless of their sexual orientation. Worldwide, HIV is spread most often through heterosexual contact.

Myth: A person cannot get HIV if they use birth control methods. Birth control methods such as diaphragms, cervical caps, sponges, spermicides, DepoProvera, Norplant, or the Pill can prevent pregnancy, but they do not prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STD).

Myth: The use of condoms prevents transmission of HIV. The proper and consistent use of latex condoms can greatly reduce, but cannot eliminate, a person’s risk of acquiring or transmitting a sexually transmitted disease such as HIV.

Myth: A person cannot have more than one sexually transmitted disease at a time. A person can be infected with more than one sexually transmitted disease at a time. A person with an untreated STD may also be 6-10 times more likely to pass on or acquire HIV during sex.

Myth: A person is not at risk for HIV/AIDS if they only have oral sex. HIV can be acquired by an individual having oral sex with a man or a woman.

Myth: Safer sex prevents HIV. Sex without penetration or sex while using a condom reduces but does not eliminate the risk of acquiring or transmitting an STD like HIV. Sexual abstinence is the surest way to prevent the sexual transmission of an STD, including HIV.

Myth: A person would know if a friend or a loved one had HIV. A person with HIV may not show any symptoms for up to 10 years. Since HIV affects each person differently, many people with HIV can look and feel healthy for years.

Myth: Getting tested for HIV is pointless. A person who knows they are HIV-positive can seek early treatment that will enable them to stay healthy longer and they can take precautions to ensure that they do not pass the virus on to someone else.

Myth: When a person is on HIV therapy, they cannot pass the virus to anyone else. Antiretroviral drugs do not keep an individual from passing the virus to others.

Myth: HIV or AIDS can be cured. To date, there is no cure for HIV or AIDS, and there are no vaccines to prevent HIV infection.

Facts: School nurses can play a key role in the school setting in dispelling misperceptions and rumors about HIV, and by helping students build their knowledge and skills for engaging in healthy behaviors. The following facts can help support school nurses in that effort.

First, everyone is at risk of getting HIV from blood-to-blood contact, sharing needles, or unsafe sex.

Second, HIV is transmitted through contact with an HIV-positive person’s body fluids, such as semen, pre-ejaculate fluid, vaginal fluids, blood, or breast milk. HIV can also be transmitted through needles contaminated with HIV-infected blood, including needles used for tattooing or body piercing.

Third, education remains the most effective way for HIV prevention.

Information for this AIDS-SCOPE has been excerpted from American Association for World Health Fact Sheet, Myth Versus Reality, at www.thebody.com/aawh/wad2001/myth.html and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Misperceptions About HIV and Its Transmission, available at the Center’s website at http://www.thebody.com/cdc/factv.html. Information is also available through the Center for Disease Control National AIDS Hotline at 1-800-342-AIDS (2437).