MYTH 4: You can contract HIV through tears, sweat, feces, and urine
HIV can be contracted only through specific bodily fluids. These include semen, vaginal fluid, rectal fluid, blood, and breast milk. A person can get infected from vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who is infected with HIV; however, having unprotected sex with someone who is infected doesn’t mean a person will automatically contract the disease. Using a latex condom or other latex barrier greatly reduces the risk . Furthermore, HIV is not spread by hugging, dry kissing, or daily contact with someone who has HIV. HIV can be transmitted from a mother to her child in the womb, during vaginal childbirth, or through breastfeeding . There are treatments today that can reduce the risk of this type of transmission, keeping the baby safe and virus free. They are most effective if started as soon as possible during the pregnancy. Even with treatment, breastfeeding is not recommended for HIV-positive mothers. Finally, people who inject drugs, hormones, steroids, or silicone can get HIV by sharing needles or syringes and other injection equipment . It is important that anytime a needle penetrates a person’s skin, it is a new needle. Keeping the penetration area clean and unexposed can greatly reduce the risk of infection. It is true that as HIV progresses and begins affecting the immune system the disease can present with physical symptoms. Also, when a person is taking HIV medicines, there may be changes in body shape and appearance, including fat accumulation (increased deposits of fat in the abdomen, neck, shoulders, breasts, or face or fatty bumps on the body) and lipoatrophy (loss of fat, particularly in the face, legs, or arms). However, all these symptoms can also be linked to many other conditions, so it is never possible to tell if someone has HIV just by looking at them. The HIV virus can actually live in the body asymptomatically for up to 10 years during the latency period. Yet, during this time, it is still possible to transmit the virus to others. This is why it is so important to use condoms correctly and to use them every time. Doing so can reduce the risk of contracting or passing HIV by up to 85%. In addition, thanks to new drug therapies, many people who are aware of their HIV-positive status are living symptom free and have no outward sign of carrying the virus. Medications and treatments can keep them at a healthy body weight and prevent them from progressing to symptomatic stages of HIV. As previously noted, many are able to maintain an undetectable status, meaning there are so few copies of the virus in their bloodstream that they can no longer be detected by a laboratory test. However, even if undetectable, there is still a possibility (though greatly diminished) of transmitting the disease. The only way to know for sure whether a person has HIV is for them to get tested. Knowing your status is important because it helps you make healthy decisions to prevent contracting or transmitting HIV. To find places near you that offer confidential HIV testing, visit https://gettested. cdc.gov/ or call 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636). You can also use home testing kits, which are available for purchase in most pharmacies and online. When people get HIV and don’t receive treatment, they will typically progress through three stages of disease, the last and most severe stage being AIDS. Yet if properly treated, an HIV-positive person may never acquire AIDS. Medicine to treat HIV, known as antiretroviral therapy (ART), helps at all stages of the disease if taken the right way, every day. This treatment can slow or prevent the progression from one stage to the next. It can also dramatically reduce the chance of transmitting HIV to someone else. SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS: STAGES OF HIV INFECTION
MYTH 5: You can tell
someone has HIV by looking at them
MYTH 6: Everyone who is HIV-positive will eventually develop AIDS
HIV can be controlled. Beginning in the 1980s with the drug AZT, ART therapy has developed to the point that it can dramatically prolong the lives of many people infected with HIV and lower their chance of infecting others. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated can have a nearly normal life expectancy. Without ART treatments, however, HIV will continue to duplicate itself within the body, moving through the three stages of HIV infection.
HIV is a virus spread through certain body fluids. It attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells (a type of white blood cell), often called T cells. These special cells help the immune system fight off infections. Over time, if left untreated, HIV can destroy so many of these cells that the body can’t fight off infections and disease, thus allowing opportunistic infections or cancers to take advantage of a very weak immune system . While no safe and effective cure currently exists, with proper medical care, Stage 1: Acute HIV infection Within two to four weeks after infection with HIV, people may experience a flulike illness, which may last for a few weeks. This is the body’s natural response to infection. During this time, the body produces an influx of white blood
cells in an attempt to eradicate the virus. As the body is unable to eliminate the virus, it readjusts and proceeds to the second stage of the disease.
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Book Code: CFL1025
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