Is There Any Reason To Tell My Employer And Those I Work With That I Have Hiv
If your job is such that there are occupational restrictions for people living with HIV then you need to disclose the fact that you have HIV. Else you do not have to tell your employer about it. Moreover, it is against the law for employers to ask you any questions about your health before they offer you a job. If in case you are asked to disclose your HIV status after you have been offered a job, think carefully about how you respond, for failing to disclose might result in termination of your job. At the end of the day, the decision is yours. After a certain period of time, you may feel comfortable disclosing your HIV positive status.
What Is Involved In The Consistent And Correct Use Of Hiv Treatment To Maintain An Undetectable Viral Load For Hiv Prevention
The consistent and correct use of HIV treatment to maintain an undetectable viral load includes:
- high adherence to medications, to achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load
- regular medical appointments to monitor viral load and receive adherence support, if needed
Regular testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections is also important because HIV treatment does not protect against STIs.
A person on HIV treatment needs to work with their doctor to determine an appropriate schedule for medical checkups and viral load monitoring.
What Happens If I Stop Taking Antiretroviral Therapy
When therapy is stopped, viral load rebounds, and the risk of transmitting HIV to a sexual partner in the absence of other prevention methods returns. NIAID-supported research has provided clear-cut scientific evidence to support the benefits of staying on continuous antiretroviral treatment. In 2006, NIAIDs large clinical trial called SMART showed that people receiving intermittent antiretroviral treatment had twice the rate of disease progression compared to those receiving continuous treatment.
Taking antiretroviral treatment daily as directed to achieve and maintain durably undetectable status stops HIV infection from progressing, helping people living with HIV stay healthy and live longer, while offering the benefit of preventing sexual transmission. Stopping and re-starting treatment can cause drug resistance to develop, making that treatment regimen ineffective and limiting future treatment options.
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We don’t want to make light of what you’re going through. Getting an HIV diagnosis may feel like the worst thing that has ever happened to you. BUT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS:There is life after testing positive. So, TAKE A DEEP BREATH. No matter how alone you may feel right now, know that there is a big community of men and women out there ready to provide information, support, advice and many other resources. Browse through these pages and and gather strength from people living with HIV.
How Well Does The Use Of Hiv Treatment To Maintain An Undetectable Viral Load Prevent Hiv Transmission To A Baby During Breastfeeding
Without HIV treatment, the risk for HIV transmission through breastfeeding is estimated to be roughly 15%. The rates of HIV transmission through breastfeeding for people who are taking HIV treatment are much lower. A systematic review of HIV transmission in breastfed infants of cisgender women on treatment found that the risk of transmission after birth was 1% after six months of breastfeeding, rising to almost 3% after one year. However, in these studies, the women were on treatment for varying amounts of time and did not continue treatment beyond six months after giving birth. The systematic review did not account for adherence or for viral load, which means that even though the women were taking HIV treatment we do not know how many of them had a detectable viral load at the time of transmission.
There is very limited research on the impact of treatment and an undetectable viral load on HIV transmission during breastfeeding. A study in Tanzania between 2013 and 2016 found two HIV transmissions among 177 infants who were breastfed by cisgender women who started treatment before the infant was born. However, in both cases the women had a detectable viral load. No transmissions occurred in the context of treatment and an undetectable viral load.
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What Is Hiv Positive
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV positive means being infected with the HIV virus. Being infected with the HIV virus does not mean the person hasAIDS. People infected with HIV can be treated with HIV medicines. HIV medicines do not cure HIV but can help people infected with the virus to live longer, and healthier lives. Treatment with HIV medicines can prevent HIV from advancing to AIDS. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. AIDS modifies and corrupts the immune system, making people susceptible to infections and diseases. The susceptibility worsens as the syndrome progresses.
Do I Still Need To Use Condoms If Im Undetectable
Some couples decide that they want to stop using condoms once they or their partner are undetectable. Its important to remember that although theres no HIV risk, being undetectable doesnt prevent you from getting or passing on other sexually transmitted infections or stop unwanted pregnancies, so you will have to use other measures to avoid these.
If you do stop using condoms, its important that both you and your partner are comfortable with the decision. It can help to talk it through with a healthcare worker first. Its recommended that you have a least two viral load tests confirming that youre undetectable before relying on this for HIV prevention. If your partner is HIV-negative they may consider using PrEP as an extra precaution.
In couples where both partners are living with HIV, its important that you are both undetectable before deciding not to use condoms. This is because if one partner has a different strain of HIV or has developed drug resistance this can be passed on if they have a detectable viral load.
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Reasons Why People Skip Their Hiv Meds
We all know why it’s important to take your HIV medications every day. It keeps the virus in check, keeps you healthy and decreases your chances of becoming resistant to the meds. And when your HIV is undetectable on meds for more than six months, you’re not at risk of sexual transmission of HIV.
But let’s face it: For most people, taking HIV medications every day as prescribed isn’t the easiest thing to do.
The reality is that everyday life brings with it obstacles that can block the way between you and your meds.
Read on for a quick rundown of some of the common reasons why people skip their meds.
What Should People Know About Taking Hiv Medicines
Taking HIV medicines keeps people with HIV healthy and prevents HIV transmission. Taking HIV medicines every day and exactly as prescribed also reduces the risk of drug resistance.
But sometimes HIV medicines can cause side effects. Most side effects from HIV medicines are manageable, but a few can be serious. Overall, the benefits of HIV medicines far outweigh the risk of side effects. In addition, newer HIV medicines cause fewer side effects than medicines used in the past. As HIV treatment continues to improve, people are less likely to have side effects from their HIV medicines.
HIV medicines can interact with other HIV medicines in an HIV regimen or with other medicines a person is taking. Health care providers carefully consider potential drug interactions before recommending an HIV regimen.
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If My Test Is Negative Do I Need Get Tested Again
Talk to your doctor or the counselor or social worker at the testing site to see if you need to get tested again.
Some reasons to get tested again include if you:
- have sex without a condom
- are a guy who has sex with other guys
- have had sex with more than three partners in the past year
- get an STD
- are a woman and are pregnant
He Assumed He Had Got Hiv From His Long
People who believed they might have been exposed to HIV in the past 72 hours could get access to Post Exposure Prophylaxis , although ideally this should be started within 24 hours of exposure. PEP is a month-long course of HIV drugs the same ones taken by people with HIV. The sooner PEP is started, the more likely it is to work. For PEP to work the drugs must be taken for four weeks. If someone stops taking it before 28 days it is unlikely that it will work. It is accessible at all sexual health clinics or, when these are closed, Accident & Emergency departments. One man said, ‘If a condom splits on a weekend, I’ve got to go to Accident & Emergency in order to get hold of this treatment. There should be a clinic somewhere you can go and pick up these pills to prevent someone else getting the virus.’Loading…
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What Is An Undetectable Viral Load
FAST FACTS
- Taking antiretroviral treatment reduces the amount of HIV in your body.
- With proper adherence, ART can reduce HIV to such low levels that the virus can no longer be detected in normal blood tests. This is called having an undetectable viral load.
- People with undetectable viral loads cant pass HIV on through sex.
- To know that youre undetectable, you must have your viral load monitored regularly.
- Remember your viral load can change. If you stop taking your treatment properly your viral load will go up again.
How Does Hiv Testing Work
In the early stages of HIV infection, the virus itself is difficult to detect. Rather than looking for the virus, HIV testing usually involves looking at the body’s reaction to the presence of the virus. The measure of the amount of virus in an individual’s blood stream is called the viral load.
Antibodies are produced by the body in reaction to the presence of a virus. An HIV antibody test measures the presence of antibodies in response to the presence of HIV. The most common HIV antibody tests are ELISA and Western Blot. These tests can now be performed on samples of oral fluid.
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Hiv During Pregnancy And Childbirth
Women living with HIV who are on treatment and have a stable undetectable viral load are extremely unlikely to transmit HIV to their baby during pregnancy and childbirth. There is a 1 in 1000 chance of transmitting HIV to the baby during pregnancy and delivery, when a woman is on antiretroviral treatment and has a viral load below 50 copies/ml .
HIV-positive women who are on treatment and have stable undetectable viral load, have a 1-2% chance of transmitting HIV to their baby if they breastfeed for 12 months.
So, although it is unlikely that a woman will transmit HIV to her baby when breastfeeding it is currently advised not to breastfeed.
Hit Hard And Hit Quickly
For an antiviral to be effective, it not only has to target a virus while leaving healthy cells alone, but it must also be very potent, capable of quickly knocking out pretty much an entire viral infection.
Thats because viruses replicate in enormous numbers, sometimes churning out millions of new viruses in a matter of hours.
Some, such as RNA viruses, dont have any genetic proofreading, which means their genetic code can change or mutate very quickly, Dr Moseley says.
So we can make an antiviral against a virus, but then typically, the virus can develop resistance very rapidly.
Many viruses are good at hiding from the bodys immune system too.
Dr Moseleys lab is investigating how viruses modify their host cell to become efficient virus factories, and the tricks viruses use to shut down the host cells immune defences so they can better replicate and spread.
Then there are the genome lurkers retroviruses such as HIV and herpes simplex virus that hide in our DNA.
Drugs cant yet scrub HIV DNA out of our own, but Professor Lewins lab at the Doherty Institute is looking for a cure to wake up the virus from its latent stage and get rid of it for good.
The one big disease that can be cured with direct-acting antivirals is hepatitis C.
Like HIV, it was discovered in the 1980s, but it has no latent form.
Professor Schinazi and his fellow researchers developed treatments which have a near 100 per cent cure rate.
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What Does It Mean To Be Durably Undetectable
Taking antiretroviral therapy daily as prescribed to suppress HIV levels leads to an undetectable status. A person is considered to have a durably undetectable viral load if their viral load remains undetectable for at least six months after their first undetectable test result. It is essential to continue to take every pill every day as directed to maintain an undetectable viral load.
How Antiretroviral Therapy Works
HIV causes disease by depleting immune cells, called CD4 T-cells, that the body needs for an effective immune response. As their numbers are depleted, the bodys ability to fight disease diminishes, leaving it vulnerable to an ever-widening range of opportunistic infections.
In order for HIV to replicate, it must go through various stages of its life cycle:
Once new viral particles are released, the cycle starts anew.
Antiretroviral drugs work by blocking different stages of this cycle. When used in combination, they function as a biochemical tag teamâone that is able to suppress the multitude of viral mutations that can exist within a single HIV population.
If one antiretroviral drug is unable to suppress a certain mutation, the other one or two drugs usually can by blocking a different stage of the cycle.
To ensure you receive the right combination of drugs, doctors will perform genetic resistance testing and other tests to establish the characteristics of your virus and the number and types of resistant mutations you have. By doing so, the doctor can tailor your treatment by picking the drugs most able to suppress those mutations.
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Can An Hiv Rna Test Be Used To Screen For Hiv
The recommended test for HIV screening is a combination test that detects HIV antibody and HIV antigen. By detecting both antibody and antigen, the combination test increases the likelihood that an infection is detected soon after exposure. Most HIV screening tests detect only HIV antibody but are good options for screening because they may be available as rapid tests and at the point of care. If any of these screening tests are positive, they must be followed by another different antibody test. If the second test is positive, then HIV diagnosis is confirmed. If, however, the first and second result do not match, then an HIV RNA test may be done to help establish a diagnosis.
The recommended screening test for newborns, however, is an HIV RNA test .
I Have Too Much Going On
Life doesn’t stop because you have been diagnosed with a disease — nor do your responsibilities. Whether it’s a chaotic work schedule, taking care of loved ones or juggling a job and school, the act of getting your medications refilled regularly and taking your meds consistently is difficult to maintain when so much is expected of you.
But balance is important, especially when it comes to your health. If you can’t take care of yourself first, how are you going to be able to take care of your other responsibilities if you get really sick?
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Getting Pregnant And Hiv: Man Living With Hiv And Hiv
Submitted on Feb 11, 2021
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There are several different options for reducing the chances of passing on HIV while trying to have a baby. If you are a man living with HIV and your partner is an HIV-negative woman seeking information on getting pregnant, the following options will help you understand what might be best for you and prepare for discussions with your health care provider.
How Does Being Durably Undetectable Affect My Risk Of Transmitting Hiv To A Sexual Partner
People living with HIV who take antiretroviral medications daily as prescribed and who achieve and then maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.
Three large multinational research studies involving couples in which one partner was living with HIV and the other was notHPTN 052, PARTNER and Opposites Attractobserved no HIV transmission to the HIV-negative partner while the partner with HIV had a durably undetectable viral load. These studies followed approximately 3,000 male-female and male-male couples over many years while they did not use condoms. Over the course of the PARTNER and Opposites Attract studies, couples reported engaging in more than 74,000 condomless episodes of vaginal or anal intercourse.
Learn more about HIV treatment as prevention.
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Ask A Laboratory Scientist
This form enables patients to ask specific questions about lab tests. Your questions will be answered by a laboratory scientist as part of a voluntary service provided by one of our partners, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. Please allow 2-3 business days for an email response from one of the volunteers on the Consumer Information Response Team.