‘Who do we need to contact?’

When a person is first told they have HIV, the doctor or nurse may ask who else needs to be contacted.

This means other sexual partners, or people who may have used drugs with, the person getting the diagnosis.

This is done so we can find other people who need to get a test.

The person with HIV has two options:

• They can tell the other people themselves.
• They can ask the local public health nurse to contact their former partners for them.

The public health nurse will need the names and a way to contact the former partners. When they get in touch with those people, the nurse does not tell them your client was diagnosed with HIV.