You Cant Get Hiv From Just Any Kind Of Contact
Myths still abound about HIV/AIDS. For example, you cant get HIV from insect bites or stings, hugging, shaking hands, or sharing toilets or dishes, according to the CDC. You also cant get infected from a closed-mouth kiss or contact with an infected persons sweat or tears. You cant get it by simply working or hanging out with someone who has AIDS or is HIV positive, either. HIV transmission from one woman to another woman through sexual contact is also rare, the CDC says.
In Search Of The Invisible Man: Straight Men Living With Hiv
When AIDS first became a public health concern in the early 1980s, many people tried to turn away from it and pretend it didn’t exist. Since that time, people with HIV have fought relentlessly for visibility, rights and services. But one group of people with HIV has remained largely invisible and has rarely been named in the history of this modern epidemic: straight men.
Hiv Among Transgender People In The Us
There are nearly 1 million transgender adults in the United States, though that number continues to grow as more people come to understand transgender identity.
Here are several key statistics regarding HIV among transgender people in the U.S.:
- Approximately 2,351 transgender people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States between 2009 and 2014.
- Of those, 84% were transgender women, and 15% were transgender men. One percent had a nonbinary identity.
- About half of transgender people43% of transgender women and 54% of transgender menwho received an HIV diagnosis during that period lived in the U.S. South.
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What Factors Put Gay And Bisexual Men At Risk For Hiv Infection
The high percentage of gay and bisexual men who are living with HIV means that, as a group, they have a greater risk of being exposed to HIV.
Other factors may also put gay and bisexual men at risk for HIV infection:
- Anal sex. Most gay and bisexual men get HIV from having anal sex without using condoms or without taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV. Anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for getting HIV or passing it on to others .
- Homophobia, stigma, and discrimination. Negative attitudes about homosexuality may discourage gay and bisexual men from getting tested for HIV and finding health care to prevent and treat HIV.
The Only Stat That Matters Is Your Health
You may see health statistics that say somebody else is four or five times more likely to become infected with HIV than you are.
But you cant trust your health to statistics. The only sure way to avoid HIV is to never expose yourself to the virus.
If you are sexually active, you have to be 100 percent certain that all of your partners are uninfected. If youre using injected drugs, its the same challenge.
Once you have HIV, you have it for life regardless of gender, sexual orientation or anything else.
Thats reason enough to be careful.
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The Importance Of Standing Up For Your Health
Women often face overt pressure from men who prefer to have unprotected sex. Some women also prefer not to insist that their partner use protection.
Its important to understand the importance of resisting this kind of pressure. If you need help, talk to a counselor or support group and ask how they have dealt with it successfully in the past.
Getting tested and protected is important to your health and to the health of people around the world. We all have our part to do to bring about an AIDS-free generation.
Positive Peers is made possible through a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau Special Projects of National Significance Grant to The MetroHealth System. for more information about the SPNS grant initiative.
Positive Peers is a private app for young people living with HIV. Learn how you can earn rewards for your participation.
I Don’t Need To Worry About Getting Hiv Drugs Will Keep Me Well
Antiretroviral drugs improve the lives of many people who have HIV and help them live longer. But many of these drugs are expensive and have serious side effects. There’s no cure for HIV. And drug-resistant strains of HIV can make treatment harder.
Prevention is cheaper and easier than managing a lifelong condition and the problems it brings.
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Keeping Your Guard Up Against Hiv
Today we have powerful anti-retroviral medicines that can ensure just about anybody can have a long productive life if they get infected with HIV.
And treatments like PrEP and PEP significantly reduce the chances of becoming infected if youre exposed to the virus.
Sometimes this gives people the idea that HIV is no big deal.
But HIV is a hassle. HIV-positive people have to take their meds every day. Theres still social stigma. The meds have side effects. You have to be careful about passing it to somebody else.
HIV is not something you want in your body. After all, it attacks your immune system, which you need to stay alive.
And thats why its so crucial to be aware of the ways HIV can infect you.
Hiv Potential Risk For Heterosexual Women
HIV is a sexually transmitted disease, so we cant talk about it without talking about sex. The most common way for HIV to get into the body is to pass through the soft, sensitive tissues of the anus or the vagina.
Women often have vaginal and/or anal sex. When semen from the man touches the anal or vaginal tissues of a woman, HIV can seep right through those tissues and into the bloodstream.
So, women having sex with men should do whatever it takes to protect their anal and vaginal tissues during sex.
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Lets Look At Some More Cdc Data On Hiv Infection Rates Who Is At Risk
Straight women have higher rates of HIV than straight men.
That said, there is a group of straight people women who have extremely high HIV infection rates. You can scream racism all you want, but the statistics are what they are.
Black women have higher than average rates of sexually transmitted diseases.
The Center for Disease Control provides this data about STD infection rates among black women:
Straight men and women make up 90 percent of the population, but they account for only 15 percent of non-childhood AIDS cases. Only 6 percent of men with AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, contracted the virus from straight sex. And even that figure doesnt hold up to a closer look. Several studies now suggest that most men who claim they got the virus this way are lying. They got it from sex with other men or sharing needles with addicts. Those studies also show that many women listed in the straight-sex category are either IV-drug users themselves or have likely contracted AIDS from sex with an IV drug user..
Dont be gay. Dont use illegal drugs. Dont have sex when you or she has an open wound or a herpes wound. Thats it. Youre safe from HIV.
Do All Gay People Have Aids
By | Oct. 11, 2010, 6:53 p.m.
Category:
Do all gay people have AIDS?
No, absolutely not. HIV the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS can infect anyone who has unprotected sex or shares IV drug equipment with someone who has HIV. It doesnt matter if a person is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or straight. Both women and men get HIV. In fact, the fastest growing group of people with HIV is heterosexual women.
These are the other ways a person can get HIV:
- getting HIV-infected blood, semen, or vaginal secretions into open wounds or sores
- being deeply punctured with a needle or surgical instrument contaminated with the virus
HIV can also be passed from a woman to her fetus during pregnancy or birth.
Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. is a registered 501 nonprofit under EIN 13-1644147. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable under the law.
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Myth #: If Both Partners Have Hiv Theres No Reason For A Condom
Studies have shown that a person living with HIV who is on regular antiretroviral therapy that reduces the virus to undetectable levels in the blood is NOT able to transmit HIV to a partner during sex. The current medical consensus is that Undetectable = Untransmittable.
However, the CDC recommends that even if both partners have HIV, they should use condoms during every sexual encounter. In some cases, its possible to transmit a different strain of HIV to a partner, or in some rare cases, transmit a form of HIV that is considered a superinfection from a strain that is resistant to current ART medications.
The risk of a superinfection from HIV is extremely rare the CDC estimates that the risk is between 1 and 4 percent.
‘you Don’t Want To Live With What We’ve Lived With’
Mr Walker said he only got tested for HIV because he was making changes to a life insurance policy which required him to have the test.
“Back in 1987 it was new, we didn’t know about it, the last thing we ever expected was that we’d come back as HIV positive,” he said.
“We thought AIDS was all in New York or it was all in America and it was hard to get a test and you were scared of your privacy and those sorts of things. It was hard in those days.
“But now there’s no reason not to get tested because it’s just so easy it’s more or less anonymous and people are compassionate, and don’t look down their nose at you, you’re not shunned.”
“You don’t want to live with what we’ve lived with, we’re well and healthy now, but I wish I didn’t have this HIV shadow lurking in the background, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
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Myth #: Straight People Dont Have To Worry About Hiv Infection
Its true that HIV is more prevalent in men who also have male sexual partners. Gay and bisexual young Black people have the highest rates of HIV transmission.
We know that the highest risk group is men who have sex with men, says Dr. Horberg. This group accounts for about 70 percent of new HIV cases in the USA, according to the CDC.
However, heterosexuals accounted for 24 percent of new HIV infections in 2016, and about two-thirds of those were women.
While the rates of Black gay and bisexual men living with HIV has remained relatively the same in the United States, overall rates of new HIV cases have decreased since 2008 . Diagnoses among heterosexual individuals in general decreased by 36 percent, and decreased among all women by 16 percent.
African-Americans face a higher risk of HIV transmission than any other race, no matter their sexual orientation. According to the CDC , the rate of HIV diagnoses for Black men is almost eight times higher than white men and even higher for Black women the rate is 16 times higher in Black women than white women, and 5 times higher than Hispanic women. African-American women contract HIV at
‘i Probably Should Have Been Dead 25 Years Ago’
Small business owner and electrician Steven Walker fears he unknowingly infected his wife Wendy with HIV.
The pair had already been happily married for four years in 1987 when they were among some of the first people in Perth to be diagnosed with HIV.
Mr Walker, 61, said neither he nor Wendy were drug users, but prior to meeting both had travelled overseas and had unprotected heterosexual sex.
He said the couple did not know who had the virus first and neither had blamed the other for their illness.
But he believes he must have contracted HIV through having sex while travelling in Europe or Britain in his early 20s, and by his late 30s it had progressed to an AIDS diagnosis.
“Realistically, I probably should have been dead 25 years ago,” he said.
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Heterosexuals And Aids: New Data Examined
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AS the world epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, continues unabated, a new apprehension has begun to take hold among some medical experts. They say their suspicion is growing stronger that the disease may now pose a threat to the heterosexual community, though they hasten to add that this suspicion is based on preliminary interpretations of figures collected mainly in Africa and Haiti and on only scant data from the United States. Other health authorities still contend, however, that the risk to heterosexuals in the United States is so small that no new public health recommendations are warranted.
At present, the established risk groups are homosexuals, intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and Haitians who recently moved to the United States.
Since 1981, when the baffling disease was first recognized in New York and California, medical researchers have made enormous strides. They have discovered a virus believed to cause AIDS, and they have begun to unravel some of the mysteries of the natural history of the affliction that has been diagnosed in 37 countries. Most of the cases have been reported in the United States.
Equal Sex Ratio in Africa
High Risk Linked to Promiscuity
Mode of Transmission Is Mystery
Research in San Francisco
Research in New York City
Research in Seattle
Worst Fears Are Borne Out
How Is Hiv Spread
In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by:
- Having sex with someone who has HIV. In general:
- Anal sex is the highest-risk sexual behavior. Receptive anal sex is riskier than insertive anal sex .
- Vaginal sex is the second highest-risk sexual behavior.
- Having many sex partners or having other STDs can increase the chances of getting HIV through sex.
Less commonly, HIV may be spread by:
- Oral sex. The chances of getting HIV through oral sex are much less than from anal or vaginal sex. Learn more about oral sex and HIV risk.
Learn more ways HIV is transmitted
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Institute Of Medicine Report
Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press
Released: March 15, 2012
Morgan A. Ford and Carol Mason Spicer, Editors Committee on Review Data Systems for Monitoring HIV Care Institute of Medicine
In July 2010, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy released its National HIV/AIDS Strategy , which includes goals to increase access to care, optimize health outcomes for people with HIV, and reduce HIV-related health disparities. At the same time, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is poised to bring millions of uninsured people including many with HIV into the health care system when it is implemented in 2014.
Monitoring HIV Care in the United States addresses existing gaps in the collection, analysis, and integration of data on the care and treatment experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS . This report identifies critical data and indicators related to continuous HIV care and access to supportive services, assesses the impact of the NHAS and the ACA on improvements in HIV care, and identifies public and private data systems that capture the data needed to estimate these indicators. This report also addresses a seriesof specific questions related to the collection, analysis and dissemination of such data.
The Role Of The Right To Privacy
All people have a God-given right to privacy. This right covers legitimate relationships, such as those between husbands and wives, doctors and patients, attorneys and clients and clergy and penitents. However, American courts have ruthlessly mined the Constitution to illicitly expand the right to privacy to include abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, pornography and now, ersatz homosexual marriage.
This expanded right to privacy is not simply some theoretical construct that has little or no application in real-life situations. Homosexual groups have used it to cripple government efforts to curb the very disease that is killing them by the thousands every year.
Organizedgays have blocked blood screening for HIV, fought the closing of homosexual bathhouses, advocated for the legalization of both male and female prostitution, shut down contact tracing and sexual partner notification, opposed criminalizing the deliberate infection of another person with HIV-AIDS, and promoted the use of condoms, which have a six to eight percent failure rate.4
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Myth #: Hiv Always Leads To Aids
HIV is the infection that causes AIDS. But this doesnt mean all HIV-positive individuals will develop AIDS. AIDS is a syndrome of immune system deficiency that is the result of HIV attacking the immune system over time and is associated with weakened immune response and opportunistic infections. AIDS is prevented by early treatment of HIV infection.
With current therapies, levels of HIV infection can be controlled and kept low, maintaining a healthy immune system for a long time and therefore preventing opportunistic infections and a diagnosis of AIDS, explains Dr. Richard Jimenez, professor of public health at Walden University.