Global Fund To Fight Aids Tuberculosis And Malaria
Canada has supported the Global Fund since its inception in 2002, with more than $2.9 billion in commitments. With the support of donors such as Canada, the Global Fund has achieved tremendous results:
- 10 million people are receiving life-saving antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS
- Close to 5.3 billion condoms were distributed
- 509 million HIV/AIDS counselling and testing sessions were conducted
- 3.6 million HIV-positive pregnant women received antiretroviral drugs preventing HIV transmission to their infants
- Nearly 7.9 million orphans and vulnerable children received basic care and support services
How Is Hiv Spread From Person To Person
HIV can only be spread through specific activities. In the United States, the most common ways are:
- Having vaginal or anal sex with someone who has HIV without using a condom or taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV. Anal sex is riskier than vaginal sex.
- Sharing injection drug equipment , such as needles, with someone who has HIV.
Less common ways are:
- From mother to child during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. However, the use of HIV medicines and other strategies have helped lower the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to 1% or less in the United States.
- Getting stuck with an HIV-contaminated needle or other sharp object. This is a risk mainly for health care workers. The risk is very low.
HIV is spread only in extremely rare cases by:
- Having oral sex. But in general, the chance that an HIV-negative person will get HIV from oral sex with an HIV-positive partner is extremely low.
Resources For Hiv/aids Treatment And Support Services
One of the most valuable tools in the effort to treat people with HIV and stem the spread of the virus is information about treatment options and prevention techniques. These sources provide helpful information for individuals and health care professionals about HIV and AIDS symptoms, treatment, and prevention.
- CDC, About HIV The site describes the symptoms of HIV and provides downloadable information on a range of HIV-related topics.
- National Institute on Aging, HIV, AIDS and Older People The site provides information about HIV and AIDS and is targeted to older generations who may be experiencing a change in lifestyle that makes them susceptible to HIV infection.
Don’t Miss: Can You Get Aids From Dried Blood
Aids Diagnosis Is More Complicated
AIDS is late stage HIV infection. Healthcare providers look for a few factors to determine if HIV latency has progressed to stage 3 HIV.
Because HIV destroys immune cells called CD4 cells, one way healthcare providers diagnose AIDS is to do a count of those cells. A person without HIV can have anywhere from 500 to 1,200 CD4 cells. When the cells have dropped to 200, a person with HIV is considered to have stage 3 HIV.
Another factor signaling that stage 3 HIV has developed is the presence of opportunistic infections. Opportunistic infections are diseases caused by viruses, fungi, or bacteria that would not make a person with an undamaged immune system sick.
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.
You May Like: Does Hiv Make Your Hair Fall Out
Stage : The Asymptomatic Stage
Once a person has been through the acute primary infection stage and seroconversion process, they can often start to feel better. In fact, HIV may not cause any other symptoms for up to 10 or even 15 years .
However, the virus will still be active, infecting new cells and making copies of itself. HIV can still be passed on during this stage. If left untreated, over time, HIV infection will cause severe damage to the immune system.
What Is Hiv And What Is Aids
Dr Kenny Win-Leung Siu, who works at specialist HIV hospital Mildmay, defines both HIV and AIDS in a simplified, understandable way.
“Human immunodeficiency virus is the virus that attacks a person’s immune system. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a state of untreated HIV. This is where a person’s immune system is unable to fight off illnesses that a healthy immune system would have defended against.”
HIV is most often contracted by having sex with a person who is HIV positive without using a condom. The virus does not spread simply like the common cold. HIV spreads via bodily fluids, such as semen, blood, vaginal fluids, menstrual blood and breast milk.
Read Also: Hiv Stays Alive In Dried Blood
How Do I Know If I Have Hiv
The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. Testing is relatively simple. You can ask your health care provider for an HIV test. Many medical clinics, substance abuse programs, community health centers, and hospitals offer them too. You can also buy a home testing kit at a pharmacy or online.
To find an HIV testing location near you, use the HIV Services Locator.
HIV self-testing is also an option. Self-testing allows people to take an HIV test and find out their result in their own home or other private location. You can buy a self-test kit at a pharmacy or online. Some health departments or community-based organizations also provide self-test kits for free.
Read the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations fact sheet on the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, the only FDA-approved in-home HIV test.
The coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult for some people to access traditional places where HIV testing is provided. Self-testing allows people to get tested for HIV while still following stay-at-home orders and social distancing practices. Ask your local health department or HIV service organization if they offer self-testing kits.
Topics
So Whats The Difference Anyway
HIV and AIDS are related, but they are not the same. AIDS is a medical condition, and HIV is a virus that attacks the human immune system.
Dr Chowti says, HIV is a virus that may cause AIDS after being infected for several years and weakening the immune system. Not everyone with HIV will get AIDS, but the infection will advance to AIDS, usually in 10-15 years, especially if you dont get treatment with specific drugs called antiretroviral drugs. So many people with the virus dont know that they have it.
AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection. People who have AIDS were either never diagnosed with HIV or didnt get treatment early enough to keep the infection from getting worse.
Don’t Miss: Is Hair Loss A Symptom Of Hiv
Stigma Of Hiv Infection
A considerable amount of stigma has been attached to HIV infection, mostly because of the virus’s association with sexual acquisition and the inference of sexual promiscuity. Consequences of this stigma have included discrimination and reluctance to be tested for HIV infection. The stigma of HIV infection is also associated with a fear of acquiring a rapidly fatal infection from relatively casual contact.
Such attitudes are inappropriate because HIV is poorly transmissible without sexual contact or blood contact. In addition, the expected survival is long in patients with HIV infection who are receiving treatment. HIV is not transmitted during casual contact and is readily inactivated by simple detergents. Much of the concern regarding HIV infection is due to the incurability of the infection and the relentless immune decline and eventual premature death in the vast majority of infected people.
How Hiv Is Transmitted
HIV is not passed on easily from one person to another. The virus does not spread through the air like cold and flu viruses.
HIV lives in the blood and in some body fluids. To get HIV, 1 of these fluids from someone with HIV has to get into your blood.
The body fluids that contain enough HIV to infect someone are:
- semen
- vaginal fluids, including menstrual blood
- breast milk
- contact with animals or insects like mosquitoes
Read Also: How Long Can Hiv Lay Dormant
How Is Hiv Treated
There are many ways to treat the different stages of HIV, but they usually involve a combination of two or three antiretroviral drugs . One focus of s work to date has been to make ARVs available to mothers in developing countries. To avoid passing HIV from mother to child, the World Health Organization recommends a regimen of three drugs during pregnancy and breastfeeding for the mother and a six-week course of a drug called nevirapine for their newborn babies.
These drugs can have side effects, including nausea, headaches, anemia and depression, but if treated, the life expectancy of an HIV positive person is comparable to someone whos HIV-free. If it isnt treated, the virus will lower a persons immunity, causing them to develop AIDS.
Paying For Care Related To Hiv And Aids
Treatment for HIV and AIDs involves regular medical checkups to keep a close watch on the persons health. While many individuals with HIV and AIDS have private insurance to pay for much of the cost of care, other governmental and non-governmental sources are available to defray some or all related medical expenses. These include:
- The Affordable Care Act requires that private health insurance cover preexisting conditions, including HIV and AIDS, and prevents insurers from canceling coverage because the person becomes ill.
- Federal government assistance for health care expenses is available via Medicaid for people with low incomes and disabilities and some families with children.
- The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides primary medical care, support services, and medications to low income people with HIV and AIDS. The program also funds grants to states, counties, cities, and local groups that care for and treat people with HIV and that work to reduce the spread of the disease.
- Pharmaceutical companies offer patient assistance programs that dispense free and low-cost antiretroviral medicine to HIV-infected people with low incomes.
Don’t Miss: What Does Antiretroviral Therapy Do Brainly
What Is The Difference Between Hiv And Aids Gcse
A person with AIDS is an acquired immune deficiency. HIV infection causes the virus to become active and begin attacking the patients immune system within a few months or years. At this point, AIDS is the state of HIV. Despite the fact that many scientists are searching for a cure for HIV/AIDS, there is no cure.
How The Definition Changed
Since the last revision of the list of AIDS-defining conditions was issued in 2008, the CDC definition of AIDS has remained largely unchanged. What has changed is how the definition is used.
Back in the 1980s and early-1990s, the CDC’s definition of AIDS was used to establish when a person was eligible for Social Security disability and other forms of financial or medical assistance. Because an AIDS diagnosis was still associated with a high risk of death, having a CD4 count of 200 was often enough to establish a person as permanently disabled.
The same criteria would not apply today. Because HIV is now considered a chronically managed condition , people who meet the definition of AIDS will need to undergo a case-by-case evaluation to determine if they are, in fact, disabled under the terms of the law.
At the same time, healthcare providers are using the term “AIDS” less and less todayâin part because of the fluidity of the definition, but also because the prognosis for many AIDS-related conditions has improved dramatically over time. If anything, the term is used more for surveillance purposes than anything else.
On top of this, “AIDS” remains a highly stigmatized term, and, in its place, many healthcare providers and advocates prefer the term “advanced HIV infection” when describing the stage of the disease.
Recommended Reading: Nba Youngboy Aids
Key Difference Aids Vs Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmunity is an adaptive immune response mounted against self-antigens and the diseases caused by such responses are called the autoimmune diseases. AIDS is the end stage of HIV infection. In the absence of proper treatment, death occurs in 2-3 years. While AIDS is an infectious venereal disease caused by the HIV virus, autoimmune diseases are caused due to different alterations in the immune system which are triggered by the exposure to various exogenous and endogenous antigens. This is the major difference between AIDS and autoimmune disease.
To reduce the risk of getting HIV, people who are sexually active should:
- use a condom every time they have sex
- get tested for HIV and make sure all partners do too
- reduce their number of sexual partners
- get tested and treated for STDs having an STD increases the risk of HIV infection
- consider taking a medicine every day if they are at very high risk of getting infected
For everyone:
- Do not inject drugs or share any kind of needle.
- Do not share razors or other personal objects that may touch blood.
- Do not touch anyone elses blood from a cut or sore.
Understanding The Difference Between Hiv And Aids
Viruses cause many diseases in humans, as Medical News Today explains. Some are relatively mild, such as cold sores, the common cold, and seasonal influenza outbreaks. Others are potentially deadly, including measles, mumps, chickenpox, hepatitis, polio, rabies, Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome , dengue fever, Zika virus, Epstein-Barr virus and AIDS.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services explains that HIV attacks the cells that help our bodies fight off infections. Without these cells, were more susceptible to infections from other sources, including other viruses. Thats HIVs insidious nature: rather than being fatal itself, it destroys the bodys ability to stave off other diseases that can ultimately cause the persons death.
Efforts to combat AIDS rightly focus on prevention, but successful treatments are now able to boost the immune system of people who contract HIV and prevent the virus from attacking patients natural disease-defense mechanisms.
Recommended Reading: Can Hiv Be Transferred By Saliva
Don’t Miss: Can Hiv Be Transmitted Through Eyes
Hiv Infection Can Be Diagnosed By A Simple Test
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.
But How Can A Person’s Life Change If Hiv Is Treated
“It would not be an exaggeration to say ARVs, the treatment for HIV, save lives,” admits Dr Win-Leung Siu.
Some studies have suggested that, if a person is diagnosed with HIV early, starts medication promptly and is adherent to medication, there’s a chance they can have a longer lifespan compared to other people in the same demographics without HIV. There can be many contributing factors to this, not solely medication.
Read Also: Is Hiv In Semen
Ways Hiv Cannot Be Spread
HIV is not spread by:
- Air or water
- Mosquitoes, ticks or other insects
- Saliva, tears, or sweat that is not mixed with the blood of a person with HIV
- Shaking hands hugging sharing toilets sharing dishes, silverware, or drinking glasses or engaging in closed-mouth or social kissing with a person with HIV
- Drinking fountains
Information For Family And Friends Of People With Hiv Or Aids
Supporting and caring for family members and friends who have HIV or AIDS can strain relationships and add tension to everyday interactions. Often, disclosing an HIV diagnosis reveals aspects of peoples lives that they may want to keep private. The resulting feelings of guilt and blame can damage family ties and friendships.
Many resources assist family and friends of people who have HIV or AIDS in understanding the effects of the disease and how best to help them.
- TeensHealth explains how a young person can learn about HIV and AIDS and support infected people, including keeping the persons condition private, encouraging activities that can relieve stress, and helping the person maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- The Foundation for AIDS Research provides an extensive FAQ webpage that addresses when someone is at risk of becoming infected, the HIV testing process, and where to find more information.
Don’t Miss: How Long Does Hiv
What Is The Treatment For Hiv
Individuals who are HIV positive will likely need to see a specialist. 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 immune system. However, there are other treatments that can prevent or cure the conditions associated with HIV. Anti-retroviral drug therapy may be given to a pregnant woman, which has proven to greatly reduce the chance of an infant developing HIV. A cesarean section may be recommended to reduce infant transmission from the birth canal. In the U.S., where other feeding options are available, an infected mother should be discouraged from breastfeeding her infant. Consult your child’s doctor for more information regarding various drug therapies.
Difference Between Hiv/aids And Flu
Categorized under Disease,Health | Difference Between HIV/AIDS And FLU
Human Immunodeficiency Virus infections are an array of conditions caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that leads ultimately to the condition of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. This indicates that the infection spreads in a cascade manner leading to a destruction of the immune cells of our body, causing the condition of acquired immunodeficiency. The initial reactions of HIV are flu like symptoms which becomes asymptomatic with disease progression, however leading to immunodeficiency.
The late stage of HIV infection is referred to as AIDS. Under this immunodeficient condition an HIV infected individual suffers from bacterial pneumonia , weight loss and Kaposis sarcoma. The disease spreads through sexual contact , blood contact through transfusion, skin cuts, and through any open areas in the body that comes in contact of blood or semen of the affected person.
The pathophysiological basis of the disease is a decrease in the CD4 helper T-cells. A decrease in T helper cells decreases the immune response. This is because decreased T helper cells on one hand will not cause clonal expansion and differentiation of B lymphocytes leading to a decrease in humoral immune response. On the other hand a decrease in T helper cells will also cause a reduction in the release of Interleukin-2. Reduced levels of interleukin-2 will fail to activate and proliferate CD8 cells, which are cytotoxic T cells.
Recommended Reading: Atlanta Hiv Statistics 2016