How Do People Get Hiv And Aids

How Is Hiv Recognized

How do you get HIV?

Doctors use laboratory tests to confirm HIV infection. The Elisa and Western Blot analyses identify people who have been exposed to HIV. These tests determine if the blood contains particular antibodies that result from contact with the virus. They do not identify who among a group of infected individuals will develop the disease. The presence of antibodies or HIV markers means the person has been infected with HIV but no one can predict when and if they will get AIDS related symptoms.

Doctors diagnose AIDS by blood tests and the presence of specific illnesses such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or Kaposi’s sarcoma. These diseases overcome the weakened immune system and are responsible for the high death rate among AIDS patients.

How Does Hiv Affect The Body

HIV finds the white blood cells, called CD4 cells. HIV gets inside the CD4 cell and makes copies of itself. Then, HIV kills the CD4 cell and the new HIV copies find other CD4 cells to get inside and start the cycle again. HIV kills immune system cells that help the body fight infections and diseases.

How Can You Protect Yourself From Hiv And Stds

Avoid or put off having sex. If you do have sex, use a male latex or female condom every time.
Latex male condoms and female condoms, when used the right way every time, are very effective in preventing HIV and many other STDs. Condoms may prevent the spread of other STDs like HPV or genital herpes, only when the condom covers the infected areas or sores.
Talk with your partner about HIV and STDs.
Don’t share drug “works”
Get STD and HIV counseling and testing.

To find out if you might have an STD, visit your doctor or clinic as soon as you can.

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People Who Are At Increased Risk

HIV can affect anyone but people who are at a higher risk include:

men who have had unprotected sex with men
women who have had unprotected sex with men who have sex with men
people who have had unprotected sex with a person who has lived in, or travelled in, Africa
people who inject drugs
people who have had unprotected sex with somebody who has injected drugs
people who have another sexually transmitted infection
people who have received a blood transfusion while in Africa, eastern Europe, the countries of the former Soviet Union, Asia or central and southern America

Pathogenicity Of Siv In Non

In most non-human primate species, natural SIV infection does not cause a fatal disease . Comparison of the gene sequence of SIV with HIV should, therefore, give us information about the factors necessary to cause disease in humans. The factors that determine the virulence of HIV as compared to most SIVs are only now being elucidated. Non-human SIVs contain a nef gene that down-regulates CD3, CD4, and MHC class I expression most non-human SIVs, therefore, do not induce immunodeficiency the HIV-1nef gene, however, has lost its ability to down-regulate CD3, which results in the immune activation and apoptosis that is characteristic of chronic HIV infection.

In addition, a long-term survey of chimpanzees naturally infected with SIVcpz in Gombe, Tanzania found that, contrary to the previous paradigm, chimpanzees with SIVcpz infection do experience an increased mortality, and also suffer from a Human AIDS-like illness. SIV pathogenicity in wild animals could exist in other chimpanzee subspecies and other primate species as well, and stay unrecognized by lack of relevant long term studies.

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Hiv And Stds Are Spread In The Same Ways

You can get HIV or an STD by having sex without a condom with a person who is already infected. HIV and some STDs can be passed from a mother to her baby while she is pregnant, during birth or through breast feeding. HIV and some STDs can also be spread by sharing drug “works” with someone who has HIV or an STD.

Can I Become Infected If My Partner Has Hiv

A partnership where one person is infected with HIV and the other is not can be described as a sero-discordant relationship. There is a risk of HIV transmission if the discordant couple has unprotected sex. However, this risk can be greatly reduced with the use of condoms during vaginal, anal and oral sex. Both partners in a discordant sexual relationship should take on the responsibility of protecting one another from HIV infection.

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How Is Hiv/aids Transmitted

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

Blood contamination – HIV may also be spread through contact with infected blood. However, due to the screening of blood for evidence of HIV infection, the risk of acquiring HIV from blood transfusions is extremely low.

Needles – HIV is frequently spread by sharing needles, syringes, or drug use equipment with someone who is infected with the virus. Transmission from patient to healthcare worker, or vice-versa through accidental sticks with contaminated needles or other medical instruments, is rare.

Mother-infant – HIV also can be spread to babies born to, or breastfed by, mothers infected with the virus.

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Hiv Infection Can Be Diagnosed By A Simple Test

How do people get HIV/AIDS? Narrator: Daniel Anonyuo

On HIV transmission, the immune system produces antibodies against the virus. A blood or saliva test can detect those antibodies to determine if the virus is present. It can take several weeks after transmission for the HIV antibody test to come back positive.

Another test looks for antigens, which are proteins produced by the virus, and antibodies. This test can detect HIV just days after infection.

Both tests are accurate and easy to administer.

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How Is An Hiv Test Performed

Before taking an HIV test:

Ask the clinic what privacy rules it follows.
Ask your healthcare provider any questions you have about HIV, AIDS, or the HIV test.

To do the HIV test, a small sample of blood is taken from your arm. The blood is sent to a lab and tested for HIV.

Home testing is available. The sample can be obtained via oral secretions , or a blood sample from a finger-stick test strip that is then mailed to a laboratory for screening. Positive results must be confirmed by your doctor before a diagnosis of HIV infection can be established.

Some clinics perform HIV tests without ever taking your name . You must go back to the clinic to get your results. A positive test means you have HIV. A negative test means no signs of HIV were found in your blood.

If your test comes back positive, your healthcare provider is likely to recommend other tests to assess your health. These may include a complete blood count , along with:

Viral hepatitis screening.

How Can You Get Hiv

HIV is found in the following bodily fluids of someone living with the virus:

blood
vaginal fluids
breastmilk.

For you to get HIV, these bodily fluids need to get into your blood through a mucous membrane , via shared injecting equipment, or through broken skin .

There is not enough HIV virus in other bodily fluids, like saliva, sweat or urine, to transmit it from one person to another.

Someone living with HIV who has an undetectable viral load, meaning effective treatment has lowered the amount of virus in their blood to levels where it cannot be detected by a normal blood test, cannot pass on HIV.

A person living with HIV with a detectable viral load can pass the virus to others whether they have symptoms or not.

HIV is most infectious in the first few weeks after infection. At this time many people are unaware of their status.

The main ways you can get HIV are:

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Blood Transfusions And Organ Donation

The risk of contracting HIV from a blood transfusion, other blood products, or organ donation is now extremely rare in the United States. All donated blood or blood products in the United States are tested for several types of bloodborne pathogens, including HIV.

Blood donations that test positive for HIV are safely discarded and dont enter the blood supply. The risk of HIV transmission during a blood transfusion is conservatively estimated to be

, there are no known instances of HIV being transmitted by receiving a tattoo or piercing. However, its technically possible for transmission to occur if equipment or ink is reused or shared.

Direct Contact With Infected Blood

HIV can be spread through direct contact with infected blood:

Through injected drugs. HIV frequently is spread among users of illegal drugs that are injected. This happens when needles or syringes contaminated with minute quantities of blood of someone infected with the virus are shared.
In a health-care setting. Transmission from patient to health-care worker or vice-versa – via accidental sticks with contaminated needles or other medical instruments – can occur, but this is rare.
Through a blood transfusion . Prior to the screening of blood for evidence of HIV infection and before the introduction in 1985 of heat-treating techniques to destroy HIV in blood products, HIV was transmitted through transfusions of contaminated blood or blood components. Today, because of blood screening and heat treatment, the risk of acquiring HIV from such transfusions is extremely small.

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How Do You Get Or Transmit Hiv

You can only get HIV by coming into direct contact with certain body fluids from a person with HIV who has a detectable viral load. These fluids are:

Blood
Semen and pre-seminal fluid
Rectal fluids
Vaginal fluids
Breast milk

For transmission to occur, the HIV in these fluids must get into the bloodstream of an HIV-negative person through a mucous membrane open cuts or sores or by direct injection.

People with HIV who take HIV medicine daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners.

What Is The Outlook For Someone With Hiv/aids

If you are diagnosed with HIV and you start ART soon after, your immune system will not be as compromised. If you continue to take your medicines every day, your outlook is very good.

ART can keep blood levels undetectable but cannot entirely rid the body of the virus . If you do not keep up on your medication, the virus goes back into the blood.

If you have HIV and dont treat it, it can take about 10 years to lead to AIDS. If you have AIDS and dont treat it, the survival rate is about three years.

It is so important to know that people who have HIV and who follow treatment guidelines are able to live full lives for nearly as long as HIV-negative people.

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What Puts You At Risk For Stds And Hiv

Youre at risk if you:

Have sex without using a condom, with someone who is infected.
Have had an STD.
Have more than one sex partner.
Are under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Many women have STDs without having symptoms. This means that unless she gets tested, she may have an STD and not know it.
Young women are getting HIV or an STD because the tissue lining the vagina is more fragile.

If you are a woman, take charge of your sexual health. Be sure to schedule pelvic exams and pap smears every year. Get tested and learn how to protect yourself from STDs and HIV.

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Screen And Treat For Hiv During Pregnancy

What is HIV/ AIDS – How Can You Get It

If youre pregnant, you should get tested for HIV. If you do have HIV, taking the appropriate medicines religiously can greatly lower the risk of transmitting it to your baby. In fact, if you start treatment early enough, you can reduce the risk to about 1% or lower.9

Breast milk contains HIV. So if you have HIV, you can avoid transmitting it to your baby after delivery by not breastfeeding.10

References

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Protecting Yourself From Hiv

Anyone who has sex without a condom or shares needles is at risk of HIV. The best way to prevent HIV is to use a condom for sex and to never share needles, syringes or other injecting equipment. Knowing your HIV status and that of your partner is also important.

You should use condoms for oral, vaginal and anal sex and pieces of latex which act as a barrier, for oral sex on the vagina or anus.

Condoms are more likely to break during anal sex, so you should use generous amounts of water-based lubricant in addition to the condom to reduce the chances of the condom breaking.

Cuts, sores and bleeding gums increase the risk of spreading HIV so you should cover any cuts or sores before sex, or avoid sex until they are healed.

It is important to continue to practise safer sex even if you, and your sexual partner, both have HIV. This is because it is possible to expose yourself to a new strain of the virus that your medicine will not be able to control.

Further advice and information is available on the link below

Does Hiv Viral Load Affect Getting Or Transmitting Hiv

Yes. Viral load is the amount of HIV in the blood of someone who has HIV. Taking HIV medicine daily as prescribed can make the viral load very lowso low that a test cant detect it .

People with HIV who take HIV medicine daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.

HIV medicine is a powerful tool for preventing sexual transmission of HIV. But it works only as long as the HIV-positive partner gets and keeps an undetectable viral load. Not everyone taking HIV medicine has an undetectable viral load. To stay undetectable, people with HIV must take HIV medicine every day as prescribed and visit their healthcare provider regularly to get a viral load test. Learn more.

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Hiv Doesnt Always Progress To Stage 3

HIV is a virus, and AIDS is the condition the virus may cause. An HIV infection doesnt necessarily progress to stage 3. In fact, many people with HIV live for years without developing AIDS. Thanks to advances in treatment, a person living with HIV can expect to live a near-normal life span.

While a person can have an HIV infection without having AIDS, anyone diagnosed with AIDS has already contracted HIV. Because there is no cure, the HIV infection never goes away, even if AIDS never develops.

Is Unprotected Anal Intercourse More Of An Hiv Risk Than Vaginal Or Oral Sex

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Unprotected anal intercourse does carry a higher risk than most other forms of sexual activity. The lining of the rectum has fewer cells than that of the vagina, and therefore can be damaged more easily, causing bleeding during intercourse. This can then be a route into the bloodstream for infected sexual fluids or blood. There is also a risk to the insertive partner during anal intercourse, though this is lower than the risk to the receptive partner.

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Hiv Testing And Counselling

Evidence shows that if HIV testing and counselling is made readily available on entry to prison and throughout incarceration, uptake increases. This is especially true if HTC is part of a comprehensive treatment and care programme. Compulsory or mandatory testing is used in some prisons as a means of identifying those who are living with HIV.87 This is despite the World Health Organization , the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and CDC all opposing mandatory HIV testing on ethical grounds.88

Research suggests that mandatory testing and segregation of prisoners living with HIV breaches human rights by taking away the right of the individual to make their own decisions, and that it is also costly and inefficient.89 90

Despite this, in 2012, 11 states in the USA were conducting mandatory testing for HIV for all prisoners upon admission and 8 states were conducting mandatory testing on release.91

By contrast, voluntary HIV testing has been found to increase the likelihood that prisoners are tested and receive their results before they are discharged or transferred to another prison.92 Rapid testing in particular allows prisoners to know their HIV status in minutes.93

Opt-out testing has also been found to be popular among prisoners and staff. A study of incarcerated men in Jamaica who were offered opt-out HIV testing recorded an acceptance rate of 63%.94

Tattoos And Body Piercings

There are no known cases in the United States of anyone getting HIV this way.
However, it is possible to get HIV from tattooing or body piercing if the equipment used for these procedures has someone elses blood in it or if the ink is shared. This is more likely to happen when the person doing the procedure is unlicensed because of the potential for unsanitary practices such as sharing needles or ink.
If you get a tattoo or a body piercing, be sure that the person doing the procedure is properly licensed and that they use only new or sterilized needles, ink, and other supplies.