Why Was The Coronavirus Renamed To Covid
The WHO press release of February 11 explained why a new name was needed for this disease: to enable discussion on disease prevention, spread, transmissibility, severity, and treatment.
Diseases are officially named by WHO in the International Classification of Diseases . For COVID-19, the name was decided based on agreed guidelines between the WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The name, and its abbreviation, was chosen because it didnt refer to a specific geographic location, a specific animal, or a specific group of people. It also had to be easy to pronounce and related to the disease.
Basic Facts About Aids
- AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Its also called advanced HIV infection or late-stage HIV.
- AIDS is a set of symptoms and illnesses that develop when an advanced HIV infection has destroyed the immune system.
- Fewer people develop AIDS now, as more people are on treatment for HIV and staying well.
Although there is no cure for HIV, with the right treatment and support, people living with HIV can enjoy long and healthy lives. To do this, its especially important to commit to taking treatment correctly.
What Is Hiv Aid Awareness
National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is celebrated on April 10 to raise awareness about the importance of engaging youth in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. It is not uncommon for young people to tune out sexual health messages from adults in their lives, but they pay close attention to their peers when it comes to sexual health.
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Causes And Risk Factors Of Hiv/aids
HIV is spread by direct contact with certain body fluids from a person with HIV who has a detectable viral load. These fluids are:
- Blood
- Semen and preseminal fluid
- Rectal fluids
- Vaginal fluids
- Breast milk
In the United States, HIV is mostly spread through sex, particularly anal and vaginal intercourse. People can also transmit HIV by sharing used injection equipment, such as syringes and other paraphernalia.
Mothers can spread HIV to babies during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.
You Do Not Get Aids From:
- Touching, social kissing, coughing, or sneezing
- Contact with eating utensils, water fountains, toilet seats, telephones, typewriters, etc.
- Teardrops, saliva, or sweat
- Using facilities such as public swimming pools, restrooms, or gymnasiums
- Being close to other people such as on a crowded bus, in a classroom, or restaurant
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What Does The Acronym Covid
What does the acronym COVID-19 Represent: According to Good RX, COVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus. Viruses and the diseases they cause have different names. For example, AIDS is the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. As mentioned above, COVID-19 is an acronym. In its full form, COVID-19 stands for coronavirus disease of 2019.
What Are The Treatments For Hiv/aids
There is no cure for HIV infection, but it can be treated with medicines. This is called antiretroviral therapy . ART can make HIV infection a manageable chronic condition. It also reduces the risk of spreading the virus to others.
Most people with HIV live long and healthy lives if they get and stay on ART. It’s also important to take care of yourself. Making sure that you have the support you need, living a healthy lifestyle, and getting regular medical care can help you enjoy a better quality of life.
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What Is Hiv Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment And Prevention
Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus that attacks the bodys immune system specifically, white blood cells called CD4-positive T-helper cells.
When the immune system is weakened from AIDS, the body may have difficulty fighting off certain cancers or viral, fungal, or bacterial infections, and these conditions may prove fatal.
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.
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Prevalence And Distribution Of Hiv/aids
According to data published by the World Health Organization , about 36.7 million people were living with HIV, approximately 1.8 million people were newly infected with HIV, and about 1 million people died of HIV-related causes in 2016. Since 1981 about 35 million people have died from HIV infection. In the early 21st century, however, the annual number of new infections began to decrease, and since about 2005 the annual number of AIDS-related deaths globally has also declined. The latter trend has been largely due to improved access to treatment for the afflicted. Thus, there has been an increase in the overall number of people living with AIDS. Nonetheless, a 2016 United Nations report on AIDS suggested that the decline in annual new infections had plateaued, and disparities in HIV incidence, AIDS-related deaths, and access to treatment were evident within countries and between regions, different age groups, and males and females.
What Does Hiv Stand For
What does HIV mean? This page is about the various possible meanings of the acronym, abbreviation, shorthand or slang term: HIV.
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Research And Statistics: How Many People Have Hiv/aids
In 2019, close to 37,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States, according to the latest figures available from the CDC. The annual number decreased by approximately 9 percent between 2015 and 2019.
The CDC further estimates that roughly 1.2 million people in the United States were living with HIV at the end of 2019, and that about 13 percent of those individuals were unaware they were HIV-positive.
Anyone can acquire HIV, but the prevalence of HIV is not the same in all communities and varies depending on social and demographic factors.
How Can You Tell If You Have Hiv
The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. You cant rely on symptoms to tell whether you have HIV.
Knowing your HIV status gives you powerful information so you can take steps to keep yourself and your partner healthy:
- If you test positive, you can take medicine to treat HIV. By taking HIV medicine daily as prescribed, you can make the amount of HIV in your blood very lowso low that a test cant detect it . Getting and keeping an undetectable viral load is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. If your viral load stays undetectable, you have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.
- If you test negative, there are more HIV prevention tools available today than ever before.
- If you are pregnant, you should be tested for HIV so that you can begin treatment if you’re HIV-positive. If an HIV-positive woman is treated for HIV early in her pregnancy, the risk of transmitting HIV to her baby can be very low.
Use the HIV Services Locator to find an HIV testing site near you.
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, or your health care provider may be able to order one for you. Some health departments or community-based organizations also provide self-test kits for free.
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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
What Is The Difference Between Hiv And Aids
HIV is the name of the virus.
A person could become HIV positive, but never develop symptoms, but if the virus isnt treated and they do become ill, the condition is known as AIDS.
If someone has AIDS, their immune system is weakened so they become more seriously affected by ordinary germs like coughs and colds, so badly that they can develop into things like pneumonia.
Someone with AIDS has to have the HIV virus, but someone with HIV doesnt have to have AIDS.
It can now be treated with anti-retroviral drugs, available on the NHS. These can reduce the levels of the virus in the blood to such low levels that they are not detectable, and cannot be passed on to somebody else.
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What Is A Novel Coronavirus
A novel coronavirus means that it is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. This means it is different from coronaviruses that cause the common cold, and those that caused SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012.
Like, SARS and MERS, the novel coronavirus is a zoonotic disease. The definition of a zoonotic disease is one that begins in animals and is transmitted from animals to people.
Can Hiv/aids Be Prevented
You can reduce the risk of spreading HIV by:
- Getting tested for HIV
- Choosing less risky sexual behaviors. This includes limiting the number of sexual partners you have and using latex condoms every time you have sex. If your or your partner is allergic to latex, you can use polyurethane condoms.
- Getting tested and treated for sexually transmitted diseases
- Not injecting drugs
- Talking to your health care provider about medicines to prevent HIV:
- PrEP is for people who don’t already have HIV but are at very high risk of getting it. PrEP is daily medicine that can reduce this risk.
- PEP is for people who have possibly been exposed to HIV. It is only for emergency situations. PEP must be started within 72 hours after a possible exposure to HIV.
NIH: National Institutes of Health
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Favorite Information On Nutrition For Hiv
If youre living with HIV, nutrition is vital for your long-term health and well-being. The Well Project, a nonprofit that focuses on women with HIV and AIDS, offers resources on how to incorporate the ideal foods for optimal health. Youll find information on how to fight weight and muscle loss, keep your energy levels high, and minimize side effects from HIV medication.
Common Questions & Answers
HIV is an abbreviation that stands for human immunodeficiency virus. If you are HIV positive it means that an HIV test has detected the presence of the virus in your body. HIV attacks your body’s immune system.
AIDS is an acronym that stands for the disease caused by HIV, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is a late stage of infection in which the HIV virus has actively damaged the immune system.
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Favorite Hiv Home Testing Resources
Need to take an STD test, but dont want to leave your home? myLab Box offers kits that screen for STDs like HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, HPV, and more. Depending on the test, youll mail in a small sample of urine, a vaginal swab, or a prick of blood, and youll get your results in one to five days.
Testing couldnt be any more convenient. This in-home HIV test is approved by the FDA and doesnt require sending a sample to a lab. You can test yourself in the privacy of your own home with an oral swab. The kit gives you a result in 20 to 40 minutes.
What Is A Coronavirus
Coronaviruses are common human and animal viruses. They were first discovered in domestic poultry in the 1930s. In animals, coronaviruses cause a range of respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver, and neurologic diseases.
Only seven coronaviruses are known to cause disease in humans:
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Four human coronaviruses cause symptoms of the common cold. These have catchy names which youll be forgiven for forgetting: 229E, OC43, NL63, and HUK1.
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Three human coronaviruses cause much more serious infections: SARS-CoV in 2002 , MERS-CoV in 2012 , and SARS-CoV2 .
You can learn more about the definition of coronavirus here.
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What Do Hiv And Aids Stand For And What Is The Difference Between Them
Whilst both HIV and AIDS are known across the planet, there is still plenty of confusion surrounding the diseases and common misconceptions about both.
Whilst everyone has heard of both conditions, many are not aware that they are both acronyms, and the difference between the two terms is still widely misunderstood.
The full names of the diseases are obviously more difficult to remember, but the difference between the two is actually quite straight forward.
Here is everything you need to know
What Does Aids Stand For
AIDS is one of the most deadly human disease pandemics in history, responsible for more than 25 million deaths since 1981. At the moment, there are thought to be 33.4 million people suffering from HIV infection or AIDS. The two conditions are not the same thing, although they are often mentioned together and used interchangeably. However there is a relationship between HIV and AIDS.
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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 body’s 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.
Who Should Be Tested For Hiv
The CDC recommends that everyone age 13 to 64 get tested for HIV at least once.
People more vulnerable to HIV should get tested more frequently. The CDC defines people in this higher-risk group as those who have:
- Had more than one sex partner in the past year
- Had an HIV-positive partner
- Been diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis or tuberculosis or a sexually transmitted disease in the past year
- Exchanged sex for drugs or money
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Talk With Your Hiv Health Care Provider
Talk with your health care provider about the benefits of HIV treatment and which HIV medication is right for you. Discuss how frequently you should get your viral load tested to make sure it remains undetectable.
If your lab results show that the virus is detectable or if you are having trouble taking every dose of your medication, you can still protect your HIV-negative partner by using other methods of preventing sexual transmission of HIV such as condoms, safer sex practices, and/or pre-exposure prophylaxis for an HIV-negative partner until your viral load is undetectable again.
Taking HIV medicine to maintain an undetectable viral load does not protect you or your partner from getting other sexually transmitted diseases , so talk to your provider about ways to prevent other STDs.
What Is The Relationship Between Hiv And Aids
After knowing the answer to what does AIDS stand for, heres more about the correlation between these two:
HIV Infection Can Lead to AIDS
Upon contracting HIV, the immune system tries to defend the body from the infection by synthesizing antibodies, proteins specifically designed to combat the virus. Using an HIV test, you can see whether the blood contains these antibodies. If the antibodies are detected, the person has the HIV infection and is said to be HIV-positive.
Being HIV-Positive Does Not Necessarily Mean that You Have AIDS
Many HIV-positive patients do not become ill for several years after the initial infection. However, the virus remains within the body and gradually overcomes the immune system. When immunity is low, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites that the body can normally fight against become opportunistic infections, and can make the patient very ill.
How Does HIV Attack Human Body?
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