HIV

In Home and Away history, three characters have become or were HIV postive, whilst three others have been tested for HIV, only for their results to have come back negative. The first of the positive cases was Miranda Porter, daughter of Donald's nanny Ellen, and a girl with whom Joey Rainbow had a relationship with in 1999. Joey first became suspicious of Miranda when she was horrified by the site of blood and soon discovered that Miranda was HIV positive. They continued their relationship. However, Sam soon found out about Miranda's condition. The next character to be found out to be HIV postive with Henk van Minnen. After travelling around Asia, he had returned to Australia and felt unwell. He went to a doctors, and although they took blood tests, the medication he was given made him feel much better and he moved on, leaving the doctors unable to contact him regarding the results. In early 2008 he returned to the practicioners, where they gave him the news he was HIV positive. He had to trick his fiancee, Cassie Turner, into getting a blood test as well and when she did, he results came back positive as well.

The three characters who have HIV scares are Kelly Watson, Leah Patterson and Robbie Hunter, all from unintentional needle accidents. Kelly Watson was working at the hospital when she accidentally pricked herself with a needle whilst treating an unnamed HIV positive patient. She had an anxious time waiting for her results, including an incident where Ailsa said she would not want Kelly treating Duncan, which resulted with Ailsa having to go on local radio to be attacked for her actions and Kelly then phoning into support Ailsa. Kelly's results came back negative. In 2000, Leah stood on a needle during a beach clean-up operation. Her results came back negative as well, despite problems initially with Colleen at the diner. In the first episode of 2005, Robbie Hunter stepped on a needle left by Ric Dalby whilst running naked through the bush. The concern that he might get HIV from the needle caused Robbie to push his friends Kim and Tasha away as well as pull stunts such as stealing a car and jumping off Jump Rock.

So far, no character has subsequently got AIDS.

For more information, here is the site Ric used the show.