Sexual Partners

Partner Counseling and Referral Services (PCRS)

Once you have been diagnosed, you will be asked to identify your sexual and needle-sharing partners, so that they can be told that they have been exposed to HIV and need to be tested. Partner notification is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of HIV. (It’s also important, of course, that you use a condom during sex and don’t share needles.)

The Partner Counseling and Referral Service (PCRS) can help you with notifying your partner(s). Most state public health departments have a PCRS program. PCRS can also help your partner(s) get counseling, a medical evaluation, treatment, and any other services they may need.

Notifying and Testing Partners

Once you have identified your partners, they should be notified as soon as possible. This gives them an opportunity to protect themselves from infection if they don’t have HIV—or, if they are having sex or sharing needles with others—to take steps to protect or notify those partners.

Notification can happen in four ways:

• Provider referral means that your healthcare provider notifies your partner(s) for you.
• Self-referral means that you notify your partner(s) yourself.
• Contract referral means that you make a “contract” to notify your partner(s) by a particular date. If, by the contract date, your partners have not come in for counseling and testing, the health department will contact them.
• Dual referral means that you and the health department will notify your partner(s) together.

If your partner(s) are notified by your healthcare provider or the health department, they will also be given information about where they can get tested for HIV and where they can find treatment if they need it. Healthcare officials would prefer that people get tested for HIV at the same time they’re notified because not everyone follows through on going to the testing sites.

It’s possible for your partner(s) to test negative for HIV even when they are already infected if they take the test during the window period. That’s the time between when a person is infected with HIV and the time that the body develops antibodies to the virus. Partners are advised to be retested 3 months after the date of their last known exposure.

For more information, see CDC’s Partner Services.

Disclosing without Patient Consent

A physician or HIV counselor may disclose a patient’s HIV status without his or her consent only under the following conditions:

• The physician or counselor has made a reasonable effort to counsel and encourage the patient to voluntarily provide this information to the spouse or sexual partner.
• The physician or counselor reasonably believes the patient will not provide the information to the spouse or sexual partner.
• Disclosure is necessary to protect the health of the spouse or sexual partner.