Is Hiv And Aids The Same

If I Test Positive For Hiv Does That Mean Im Going To Die

No. Thanks to amazing advances in medicine, such as antiretroviral therapy which helps stop the progression of HIV to AIDSHIV is no longer considered a death sentence.

Currently, there is no cure for HIV, so once people get it, they have it for life. However, if people living with HIV take their medication as prescribed, they can lead healthy lives.

How Can I Make Sure I Dont Give Hiv To Anyone During Sex

If you find out that you have HIV, try to stay calm. People living with HIV can have normal, healthy relationships and sex lives. But its important to take precautions to help your partner stay HIV-free.

There are a few ways that you can avoid giving HIV to other people:

• Always use condoms when you have vaginal and anal sex.

• Start treatment for HIV as soon as possible, and keep taking your HIV medicine. When you take it correctly, HIV treatment can lower or even stop your chances of spreading the virus to your sexual partners .

• Theres a daily pill your partner can take to lower the risk of getting HIV, called PrEP.

• Dont share needles for shooting drugs, piercings, or tattoos.

• Get tested and treated for other STDs besides HIV regularly. Having other STDs makes it easier for you to spread HIV to others.

If you test positive for HIV, its important to tell your sexual partners about it so they can be tested, too. Even if youre really careful to not spread HIV, be honest with your future partners about your status so you can both be informed and help each other stay healthy. Read more about talking with your partners about HIV.

What Is The Difference Between Hiv Vs Aids

• The difference between HIV and AIDS is in the strict definition of both words. For example, HIV is defined as a virus that can be transmitted from person to person and damages the human immune system.
• AIDS is defined as a syndrome or condition that results when HIV damages the human immune system so severely that the person becomes very susceptible to additional problems, including infections like pneumonia or tuberculosis and/or the development of cancers like Kaposi’s sarcoma.
• HIV and AIDS are similar only because both of them involve the human immunodeficiency virus. Confusion exists between these two words because both the public and medical literature have tended to use HIV and AIDS interchangeably. Strictly speaking, the use of them interchangeably is incorrect. Consequently, for clarity, HIV should only refer to human immunodeficiency viruses and AIDS should only refer to the relatively end-stage syndromes that develop after HIV has extensively damaged a person’s immune system. For example, a person can have HIV, or better termed, an infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus but not have AIDS. A person can have AIDS caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, but AIDS is a syndrome , and AIDS is not the human immunodeficiency virus .

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Different Types Of Hiv Tests

The biggest difference between HIV and AIDS is that HIV is a virus that infects the body and compromises its ability to fight off other diseases, while AIDS is the final stage of an HIV infection in which the persons immune system is so compromised by HIV that opportunistic infections and diseases occur.

A person must be tested for the virus to determine whether they have HIV. The following are the three types of HIV tests:

• Nucleic acid tests involve drawing blood from the persons vein and detecting HIV in the blood. NAT is the fastest and most expensive HIV test.
• Antigen/antibody tests detect the presence of HIV antibodies and antigens in the blood. The blood is drawn from a vein or extracted via a finger prick.
• HIV antibody tests detect HIV antibodies in the persons blood or oral fluid. Tests involving drawing blood from a vein can detect antibodies sooner after the initial infection than either a finger prick or oral fluid.

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.

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Should I Get Vaccines If I Have Hiv/aids

Check with your healthcare provider. Certain vaccines are generally recommended, including:

• Influenza vaccine.
• Human papillomavirus vaccine if you are age 26 or younger.
• Meningococcal series of shots.
• Pneumonia vaccine.
• Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, with a repeat every 10 years of the tetanus/diphtheria vaccine.

You should probably avoid live vaccines, such as the ones for chickenpox and measles, mumps and rubella . This is true especially if your CD4 numbers are 200 or lower. Make sure you discuss vaccine questions with your healthcare provider.

HIV can affect how well the vaccine works. It can also make your viral load increase for a time because your immune system is stimulated by the vaccine.

What Are Causes And Risk Factors For Hiv And Aids

The cause for HIV infection is the human immunodeficiency virus it is spread by person-to-person contact mainly by body fluids during unprotected sex and/or the use of needles contaminated with the human immunodeficiency virus. Other less frequent ways HIV is transmitted are through contaminated blood or tissue during a transfusion or transplant, to a fetus by an infected mother, or to an infant via breast milk from an infected mother.

The cause of AIDS is infection by human immunodeficiency viruses that eventually damage the person’s immune system so severely that the person develops additional medical problems like opportunistic infections or cancers.

The risk factors for HIV and AIDS include

• unprotected sexual contact,

• a generalized rash.

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Are Hiv And Aids The Same In Short No

While HIV can lead to AIDS, HIV and AIDS are by no means the same. HIV is a virus. AIDS is a diagnosed disease that is caused by that virus. A person doesnt need to have AIDS to have HIV, however she does have to carry HIV to have AIDS.

Experts believe HIV was transferred from monkeys to humans more than 100 years ago in Africa, but HIV wasnt formally discovered until the 1980s, when gay men in New York City began dying from AIDS at an alarming rate and HIV was found to be its cause, according to the Body, a blog for people with HIV/AIDS.

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Heres a breakdown of the two directly related but not equivalent illnesses:

HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus spread through bodily fluids. So, people can develop aids through unprotected sex or sharing needles. Anyone rich, poor, gay, straight, male, female, transgender, cisgender has an equal ability to develop it. Its what you do, not who you are, that puts you at risk for HIV, the Body reminds us.

Unlike most common viruses, people with HIV can go 10 years without noticing any symptoms of the virus, according to The Body, and once you have it, you have it for life. So, its important to get tested. Heres how to do that.

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What You Need To Know About The Links Between Hiv And Stds

Many people think that STDs are a harmless “fact of life.” Since most STDs can be cured, people think, “Doctors give you medicine and that’s the end of it, right?” Well, not quite! Having an STD can increase your chances of getting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

• Contact information and Phone numbers

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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

What Does Hiv Actually Do

The HIV virus attacks the bodys healthy T cells, which help to fight off infections. It takes over the nucleus of each cell, essentially turning it into a factory to make more HIV cells, which move out into the bloodstream and continue to replicate. By killing off T cells, HIV causes the body to lose its natural disease-fighting mechanisms it becomes defenseless.

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Can Hiv Be Prevented Or Avoided

The best way to prevent HIV is to not have sex with a person who has HIV, or share a needle with a person who has HIV. However, there is also a medicine called PrEP that people can take before coming into contact with HIV that can prevent them from getting an HIV infection.

PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis. It is for people who are at long-term risk of getting HIV either through sexual activity or by injecting drugs. If youre taking PrEP and come into contact with HIV, the medicine makes it difficult for HIV to develop inside your body.

Other ways to prevent HIV include:

• When you have sex, practice safer sex by using a condom. The best condom is a male latex condom. A female condom is not as effective but does offer some protection.
• Do not share needles and syringes.
• Never let someone elses blood, semen, urine, vaginal fluid, or feces get into your anus, vagina, or mouth.

Why Does Tuberculosis Affect Hiv

HIV and Tuberculosis are both weaknesses, but they are both strengths when they are combined. As a result of HIV, the immune system is weakened, making it more vulnerable to infection and disease, which in turn encourages the development of tuberculosis. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis move in, infect, and spread through the body because it lacks adequate defenses.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Hiv/aids

The first signs of HIV infection may be flu-like symptoms:

• Swollen lymph nodes
• Mouth ulcers

These symptoms may come and go within two to four weeks. This stage is called acute HIV infection.

If the infection is not treated, it becomes chronic HIV infection. Often, there are no symptoms during this stage. If it is not treated, eventually the virus will weaken your bodys immune system. Then the infection will progress to AIDS. This is the late stage of HIV infection. With AIDS, your immune system is badly damaged. You can get more and more severe infections. These are known as opportunistic infections .

Some people may not feel sick during the earlier stages of HIV infection. So the only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested.

Does Hiv Always Lead To Aids

A virus is HIV. You may become AIDS after youve been infected for several years and your immune system has been weakened. People with HIV are not at risk for contracting AIDS. A person who does not receive treatment with antiretroviral drugs is at risk of developing AIDS, which usually occurs in 10 to 15 years.

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Youre More Likely To Get Hiv If Your Partner Has Hiv And An Std

People with both HIV and an STD have more HIV in their semen or vaginal fluid. This makes it easier for a person with an STD or HIV to give the virus to others when having sex without a condom.

Remember, many people who have HIV dont know it. It can take many years for symptoms to show up. That is why it is so important to use condoms during sex, or not to have sex at all.

Hiv: The Virus That Causes Aids

HIV was first isolated in the early 1980s after public health officials in New York City and Los Angeles reported an outbreak of rare diseases among gay men. These diseases were generally not seen in young, healthy people.

Scientists soon discovered that the virus, initially dubbed “HTLV-3,” was able to rapidly kill defensive immune cells and, by doing so, leave a person susceptible to infectious organisms that usually do not cause disease.

As scientists gained a greater understanding of how the virus worked, they renamed it human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.

HIV is classified as a retrovirus, a rare group of viruses that uses RNA as its genetic material. When a retrovirus infects a host cell, it uses certain enzymes to turn its single-stranded RNA into double-stranded DNA. Once the DNA is inserted into the host cell’s nucleus, it effectively “hijacks” the cell’s genetic machinery and turns it into an HIV-producing factory.

HIV causes disease by targeting a type of white blood cell called a CD4 T cell lymphocyte. While these “helper” cells do not kill disease-causing organisms like HIV, they are responsible for activating and coordinating the immune response .

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Why Is Haiti Significant

In the 1960s, the B subtype of HIV-1 had made its way to Haiti. At this time, many Haitian professionals who were working in the colonial Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1960s returned to Haiti.13 Initially, they were blamed for being responsible for the HIV epidemic, and suffered severe racism, stigma and discrimination as a result.

HIV-1 subtype M is now the most geographically spread subtype of HIV internationally. By 2014, this subtype had caused 75 million infections.14

How Is Hiv/aids Diagnosed

Early HIV infection often causes no symptoms, and must be detected by testing a person’s blood for the presence of antibodiesdisease-fighting proteinsagainst HIV. These HIV antibodies generally do not reach levels high enough to detect by standard blood tests until 1 to 3 months following infection, and may take as long as 6 months. People exposed to HIV should be tested for HIV infection as soon as they think they may have been exposed to HIV.

When a person is highly likely to be infected with HIV and yet antibody tests are negative, a test for the presence of HIV itself in the blood is used. Repeat antibody testing at a later date, when antibodies to HIV are more likely to have developed, is often recommended.

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How Do I Talk With People About Having Hiv

It might feel scary to admit that you have HIV, but talking about things can really ease your mind. You could lean on a close, non-judgmental friend or family member whom you trust to keep the conversation private. Counselors and support groups can also be sources of comfort and they can help you figure out how to talk with others about your HIV. Be careful about who you tell your status to people with HIV sometimes deal with unfair discrimination.

Theres no one right way to talk to your partners about having HIV, but here are some basic tips that might help:

Its really important to also tell your past partners that you have HIV, so they can get tested, too. A lot of health departments have programs that let your partners know they were exposed to HIV without giving them your name unless you want them to.

Will Having Hiv Affect My Pregnancy

Babies can get infected with HIV during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding thats why its recommended that everyone get tested early in pregnancy. If you have HIV, antiretroviral medications greatly lower your chances of giving HIV to your baby. With treatment, less than 2 out of 100 babies born to women with HIV will be infected. Without treatment, about 25 out of 100 babies will be infected.

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