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Positively Negative Workshop Outline
How to Evaluate Risk

High Risk – Low Risk – No Risk

If you ask this series of questions, you can figure out the risk level of any activity.

(Note – We’ve combined Health Canada’s No and Negligible Risk categories into No Real Risk. Activities in both categories have never been shown to transmit HIV, and the two separate categories are confusing to explain in workshops.)

1 ) How many people are involved?

 - 1 person = No Real Risk

 - 2 or more people = need to ask the next question

2) What body fluids are present? Can they transmit HIV?

 - No body fluid = No Real Risk

 - Saliva, mucous (snot), tears, sweat, ear wax, vomit, urine, feces = No Real Risk

 - Blood, semen (including pre-cum), vaginal fluid (including menstrual blood), breast milk = can transmit HIV, need to ask the next question

3) Does the body fluid that can transmit HIV have a way inside a second person’s body?

 - Contact with healthy skin = No Real Risk (Skin provides a solid barrier against viruses. Health Canada also includes skin with minor scratches, hangnails, scabs that are beginning to heal, and fingernails bitten to the quick in this category.)

 - Contact with a stronger membrane (usually on the head –mouth, nose, eyes, ears) = Low Risk (They defend themselves and provide a relatively stron barrier against viruses, but it is possible for HIV to get in. There haven’t been many cases of HIV transmission reported, but it is possible. Cuts or sores in the mouth make catching HIV through oral sex more likely, but still Low Risk.)

 - Using a latex, polyurethane, or vinyl barrier for Low Risk activities brings them down to No Real Risk. The risk was low to begin with, and the barrier is unlikely to break.

 - Contact with a fragile membrane (the genitals –lining of vagina or anus/rectum, fragile skin onpenis, urethra) or directly with the blood stream = High Risk (These membranes/blood stream are less equipped to defend themselves against viruses, especially during the friction that comes with sex. These activites are how the vast majority of people catch HIV.)

 - Using a latex or polyurethane condom for High Risk activities bring them down to Low Risk. The only risk is that the condom could break or slip off. Cleaning needles and syringes with water, then bleach, then water reduces your chance of catching HIV (to Low Risk), bu will not kill Hepatitis).

Important –Activities with Low or No Real Risk of catching HIV may still transmit other STIs. Kissing can transmit cold sores, fingering could transmit genital warts (HPV), oral sex can transmit chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis B, herpes, and HPV, rimming can transmit hepatitis A and parasites, and vaginal or anal sex with an intact condom can transmit herpes and HPV if the sores are not covered by the barrier.