What Is HIV/AIDS?
How Is HIV/AIDS Transmitted?
How Can A Person Get HIV/AIDS?
HIV/AIDS Cannot Be Spread By:
How Can A Person Find Out If They Have HIV/AIDS?
What Is The Treatment or Cure For HIV/AIDS?
How Can I Get More Information About HIV/AIDS?

What is HIV/AIDS?

HIV (human immuno-deficiency virus) - a virus (HIV). The virus kills or damages  cells of the body that normally fights off infections and can destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome - The term AIDS refers to the most advanced stages of an HIV infection. The definition of AIDS are developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is responsible for tracking the spread of AIDS in the United States.

The 1993 CDC definition of AIDS includes all HIV-infected people who have fewer than 200 CD4+ T cells. (Healthy adults usually have CD4+ T-cell counts of 1,000 or more.)

The definition includes 26 types of conditions that affect people with more severe HIV disease.

How is HIV/AIDS Transmitted? How Can A Person Get HIV/AIDS?
 

• Sexual Contact - HIV is spread most commonly by sexual contact with an person who is infected with the virus. The virus enters the body through the lining of the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or mouth during sexual activity.

•  Blood  - HIV may also be spread through contact with infected blood. However, due to the screening of blood for  HIV infection, the chances of getting HIV from blood transfusions is extremely low.

•  Needles - HIV is often spread by sharing needles, syringes, or drug use equipment with someone who is infected with the virus.

• It can be spread from a patient to healthcare worker, or vice-versa through accidental needle sticks with contaminated needles or other medical instruments,but it is rare.

• Mother to Infant - HIV can be spread to babies born to, or breast fed by, mothers infected with the virus.

• saliva
• sweat
• tears
• urine
• feces
• casual contact such as sharing food utensils, towels, and bedding
• swimming pools
• telephones
• toilet seats
• biting insects (such as mosquitoes)

How Is HIV/AIDS Diagnosed?

Early HIV infection often causes no symptoms, and must be found and diagnosed by testing a person's blood for the antibodies (disease-fighting proteins) to HIV.

These HIV antibodies generally do not reach levels high enough to detect by standard blood tests until one to three months after the infection, and may take as long as six months.

People who are exposed to HIV should be tested for HIV infection as soon as they are likely to develop antibodies to the virus.

When a person is highly likely to be infected with HIV and yet antibody tests are negative, a test for the presence of HIV itself in the blood is used. Repeat antibody testing at a later date, when antibodies to HIV are more likely to have developed, is often recommended.

What Is The Treatment  Or Cure For HIV/AIDS?

As with many other conditions, early detection offers more options for treatment.

Today, there are medical treatments that can slow down the rate at which HIV weakens the body's ability to fight off infection, but there is no cure for the disease.

There are other treatments that can prevent or cure the conditions associated with AIDS. You must see  your physician for more information regarding various drug therapies for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

There is no cure for HIV/AIDS.
 

How Can I Get More Information?

Ask Your Doctor

NIAID, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports research on AIDS
and other sexually transmitted diseases.

www.nih.gov/health