Interpreting The Numberswhat Additional Information Needs To Be Provided
Some clients may see these numbers and think their risk of HIV transmission is low. Therefore, caution is needed when interpreting them. If these numbers are provided to clients, they should be accompanied by information that helps shed light on why the risk may be higher than it seems.
Transmission can occur after one exposure.
It is important to emphasize that a person could become infected from having unprotected sex once or a person could have unprotected sex many times and not become infected, regardless of how low or high the risk per exposure is.
A risk of 1% would mean that an average of one infection would occur if 100 HIV-negative people were exposed to HIV through a certain type of sex. It does not mean that a person needs to be exposed 100 times for HIV infection to occur.
These are estimates of average risk in the absence of biological factors that increase risk.
The numbers in the table above are rough estimates. They are averages and do not represent the risk from all exposures to HIV through a certain type of sex.
The risk of HIV transmission may be much higher than these averages if biological risk factors are present. For example, research shows that STIs and some vaginal conditions, such as bacterial vaginosis, can increase the risk of HIV transmission by up to 8 times.6,7,8 As a result, the risk of an HIV-negative woman becoming infected through unprotected receptive vaginal sex could be closer to 1% if she has a vaginal STI.
What Is The Evidence That Hiv Causes Aids
The epidemic of HIV and AIDS has attracted much attention both within and outside the medical and scientific communities. Much of this attention comes from the many social issues related to this disease such as sexuality, drug use, and poverty. Although the scientific evidence is overwhelming and compelling that HIV is the cause of AIDS, the disease process is still not completely understood. This incomplete understanding has led some persons to make statements that AIDS is not caused by an infectious agent or is caused by a virus that is not HIV. This is not only misleading, but may have dangerous consequences. Before the discovery of HIV, evidence from epidemiologic studies involving tracing of patients sex partners and cases occurring in persons receiving transfusions of blood or blood clotting products had clearly indicated that the underlying cause of the condition was an infectious agent. Infection with HIV has been the sole common factor shared by AIDS cases throughout the world among men who have sex with men, transfusion recipients, persons with hemophilia, sex partners of infected persons, children born to infected women, and occupationally exposed health care workers.
The conclusion after more than 28 years of scientific research is that people, if exposed to HIV through sexual contact or injecting drug use for example, may become infected with HIV. If they become infected, most will eventually develop AIDS.
What Are Hiv And Aids
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS . HIV attacks the immune system by destroying specific white blood cells called CD4 positive T cells that are vital to fighting off infection. The resulting shortage of these cells leaves people infected with HIV vulnerable to other infections and diseases, and additional complications.
AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. A person infected with HIV is diagnosed with AIDS when he or she has a dangerously low number of CD4+ T cells as well as one or more opportunistic infections, such as some types of pneumonia or tuberculosis, that do not typically affect people with healthy immune systems.
Although HIV infection and AIDS primarily affect the immune system, they also disturb the nervous system and can lead to a wide range of severe neurological disorders, particularly if HIV goes untreated and progresses to AIDS. Many of the most severe neurological conditions can be prevented with antiretroviral therapy. However, even individuals who receive this treatment can develop less severe neurological and cognitive difficulties.
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Can Opportunistic Infections Be Treated
If you develop an OI, there are treatments available such as antiviral, antibiotic, and antifungal drugs. The type of medicine your health care provider prescribes will depend on the OI.
Once an OI is successfully treated, a person may continue to use the same medicine or an additional medicine to prevent the OI from coming back. Having an OI may be a very serious medical situation and its treatment can be challenging.
Hiv Stigma And Discrimination
HIV can prompt intense feelings in people, regardless of their HIV status. It is sometimes viewed with a sense of unacceptability or disgrace. A person with HIV may feel shame and despair about their status. An HIV-negative person may be fearful or angry when they discover someone has HIV. The relationship of these feelings to HIV is referred to as stigma.Felt stigma refers to deep feelings of shame and self-loathing, and the expectation of discrimination. It can have serious negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV by discouraging them from getting tested, receiving support, or taking treatment. It may also lead people to engage in high-risk behaviours that harm their health, and contribute to new HIV infections.Enacted stigma is the experience of unfair treatment by others. For people living with HIV this can be in the form of being treated differently and poorly, or through rejection, abuse, or discrimination.HIV stigma is particularly harmful when it overlaps with other factors that are stigmatised such as if a person uses drugs, is a sex worker, is trans or gender diverse.Breaking down stigma is a community response where:
If you have experienced stigma or discrimination from a health care provider, and are unable to resolve your complaint with them directly, contact the Health Complaints Commissioner
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Myth #: You Can Tell If Someone Has Hiv/aids By Looking At Them
If an individual contracts the HIV virus, the symptoms are largely unremarkable. A person with an HIV infection might display symptoms that are similar to any other type of infection, such as a fever, fatigue, or general malaise. Additionally, the initial mild symptoms generally only last a few weeks.
With the early introduction of antiretroviral medications, the HIV virus can be effectively managed. A person with HIV who receives antiretroviral treatment is relatively healthy and is no different than other individuals who have chronic health conditions.
The stereotypical symptoms that people often associate with HIV are actually symptoms of complications that can arise from AIDS-related illnesses or complications. However, with adequate antiretroviral treatment and medications, those symptoms will not be present in an individual living with HIV.
Fact: Hiv Is Not The Same As Aids
HIV is the virus that leads to AIDS. You have AIDS if your CD4 count drops below 200 or when you have certain infections or cancers. You can have HIV for years without having AIDS. Being infected with HIV does not mean you have developed AIDS.
Also, people with HIV who start treatment early in their infection, stay on treatment, and have an undetectable viral load can stay healthy and prevent the disease from progressing to AIDS.
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Central Nervous System Disease Associated With Hiv
HIV causes significant inflammation in the body. This inflammation can cause neurological complications by damaging the spinal cord and brain, which make up the central nervous system.
Antiretroviral therapy , a combination of HIV medications taken daily, helps stop HIV from replicating and spreading in the body. Despite effective ART, people living with HIV are still at risk for central nervous system diseases associated with HIV. These diseases can be neurological or neurocognitive .
Severe neurological impairments such as dementia, brain atrophy, and encephalitis are less common in people who use ART, compared to people living with HIV who are not on ART. However, there are still less severe forms of central nervous system diseases associated with HIV.
Researchers are working to better understand how HIV affects the central nervous system this information will be helpful to develop new treatments to improve the lives of people living with HIV. Understanding which types of cells in the central nervous system are targeted by the HIV infection and how those cells are damaged may help shape efforts to prevent, treat, and cure HIV. Research efforts also focus on understanding why HIV is harder to eliminate in some tissues in the body and what strategies might be more effective on those cells.
How An Hiv Infection Develops Into Aids
As Medical News Today explains, a person with HIV who follows an effective treatment regimen is unlikely to have the virus lead to AIDS. However, if HIV is untreated, the persons immune system will continue to be damaged. The more compromised the immune system becomes, the more likely the person will develop an opportunistic infection.
The opportunistic infections that are most likely to affect AIDS patients include the following:
- Invasive cervical cancer, lung cancer, Kaposis sarcoma and other cancers
- Candidiasis, which is a fungal infection that affects the throat and lungs
- Pneumocystis pneumonia, which is a fungal form of pneumonia
- Toxoplasmosis, which is a parasitic infection that affects the brain
- Cryptococcosis, which is a fungal infection that often causes pneumonia
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Fact: Hiv Cannot Be Cured
There is no cure for HIV at this time. But with today’s medicine, women can reduce their viral load to the point that it is undetectable. This means that your viral load is fewer than 40 to 75 copies in a sample of your blood.
An undetectable viral load does not mean that you no longer have HIV. It is still possible to pass HIV to others, although the risk is much lower.4 Having an undetectable viral load also helps prevent the progression to AIDS or getting other infections.
Research is being done that may lead to new treatments and new ways of preventing HIV infection. In the meantime, women with HIV are living full lives, including working, having children, and participating fully in their communities.
How Are Hiv And Aids Treated
Medicines can help people with HIV stay healthy. They can also prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS.
Health care providers prescribe a combination of different medicines for people with HIV and AIDS. They must be taken exactly as prescribed or they wonât work. These medicines:
- help keep the number of CD4 cells high
- reduce the viral load of HIV
Regular blood tests will check the number of CD4 cells in the body and the viral load.
If an HIV-positive personâs CD4 count gets low, doctors prescribe daily antibiotics. This prevents pneumocystis pneumonia, which happens in people with weakened immune systems.
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Stage : Chronic Hiv Infection
During the chronic HIV stage, HIV is active, but you may have no symptoms. You can still transmit the virus to others.
If you take HIV medication, you may remain in this stage indefinitely and never progress to the next phase. However, if you are not treated, this stage may last a decade or longer but could progress faster.
What Else Should I Know
Treatment has improved greatly for people with HIV. By taking medicines and getting regular medical care, HIV-positive people can live long and healthy lives.
People with HIV need a medical care team for the best treatment and support.
If you or someone you know has HIV or AIDS it is important to:
- goes to all doctor visits
- takes all medicines exactly as directed
- goes for all follow-up blood tests
- understands what HIV/AIDS is and how it spreads
- is physically active, gets enough sleep, and eats well
Find more information at:
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Finding Cancer In Its Early Stages
Have regular medical check-ups. Talk with your doctor or health care provider about your cancer risk and problems to watch for. Ask about tests you can get even if you have no signs of cancer:
- Mammogram for female breast cancer.
- Colon/rectal exam.
- Prostate exam for men over age 50.
- Oral exam by a dentist every six months.
Know the warning signs of cancer and do self-exams. If you notice any of these warning signs, tell your doctor or dentist right away:
- A sore that does not heal. Look for new growths on your skin or any changes in the size, color, or shape of moles or warts.
- A lump or hardness in the skin, especially in female breasts and in the male testicles and groin area.
- Oral exam: check the inside of your mouth, lips, gums, and tongue for sores, swelling or bleeding, white patches, scabs, or cracks.
- Bleeding or loss of body fluids that is not normal.
- Changes in your bowel or bladder habits.
- A cough or a sore throat that lasts for a long time.
- Heartburn or trouble swallowing that does not go away.
Causes Of Hiv Infection
It’s a fragile virus and does not survive outside the body for long.
HIV cannot be transmitted through sweat, urine or saliva.
Other ways of getting HIV include:
- sharing needles, syringes or other injecting equipment
- transmission from mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding
The chance of getting HIV through oral sex is very low and will be dependent on many things, such as whether you receive or give oral sex and the oral hygiene of the person giving the oral sex.
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Neurological Complications Of Hiv
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens and slowly destroys the bodys immune system, leaving you vulnerable to life-threatening complications from an infection or certain cancers.
As HIV and AIDS battle your immune system, your central nervous system is also affected. HIV and AIDS both cause a number of neurological complications, particularly if HIV progresses to AIDS.
Today, antiretroviral medicineswhen taken correctly and promptlyhelp to slow down the progression of HIV. They also help to delay the onset of or to decrease the risk of progression to AIDS. Controlling HIV can also reduce your risk for neurological complications of HIV.
Antionettea Etienne New York City Diagnosed In 1997
The craziest, most outlandish myth that Iâve heard about HIV is about a Hispanic person going to a santera to take the virus out of their body: The smoke of cigars being blown on them and chicken blood being splattered on them and them lighting candles and stuff.
But I understand why a person of Latino descent would do so, because that is also part of my culture. They felt that brujerÃa â which is like witchcraft â would help them get rid of HIV, but being a knowledgeable person in this field, I know that that would not work.
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What Does Hiv Do To A Person
HIV infects white blood cells of your immune system called CD4 cells, or helper T cells. It destroys CD4 cells, causing your white blood cell count to drop. This leaves you with an immune system that cant fight off infections, even those that wouldnt normally make you sick.
HIV initially makes you feel sick with flu-like symptoms. Then it can hide in your body for a long time without causing noticeable symptoms. During that time, it slowly destroys your T-cells. When your T-cells get very low or you begin to get certain illnesses that people with healthy immune systems dont get, HIV has progressed to AIDS.
AIDS can cause rapid weight loss, extreme tiredness, mouth or genital ulcers, fevers, night sweats and skin discolorations. Other illnesses and cancers often happen in people living with AIDS and can cause additional symptoms.
Whats a retrovirus?
A retrovirus is a virus that works backward from the way human cells do. Human cells have instructions that send a message to make building blocks for your body .
Retroviruses have their instructions written on RNA. When a retrovirus invades your cells, it changes its RNA to look like your cells instructions . Then it cuts your cells DNA and inserts its instructions into them. Your cell then acts as though the virus instructions are its own.
Where Did Hiv Come From
The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Genetic analysis of this blood sample suggested that HIV-1 may have stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
We know that the virus has existed in the United States since at least the mid- to late 1970s. From 19791981 rare types of pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses were being reported by doctors in Los Angeles and New York among a number of male patients who had sex with other men. These were conditions not usually found in people with healthy immune systems.
In 1982 public health officials began to use the term “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,” or AIDS, to describe the occurrences of opportunistic infections, Kaposi’s sarcoma , and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in previously healthy people. Formal tracking of AIDS cases began that year in the United States.
In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS. The virus was at first named HTLV-III/LAV by an international scientific committee. This name was later changed to HIV .
For more information on this discovery, visit the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases press release. For information on the theory that HIV originated in polio vaccines, visit the CDC Vaccine Safety site.
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