AIDS & HIV

General Information || Symptoms || Stages

General HIV & AIDS Information

What is HIV?

HIV stands for the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus. This is a virus that people can become infected with and that they can then pass on to other people.

How a person is affected by HIV infection and when does become AIDS?

When someone becomes infected with HIV it begins to attack their immune system which is the body's defense against illness. This process is not visible.

A person infected with HIV may look and feel perfectly well for many years and they may not know that they are infected. Then as the person's immune system weakens they become vulnerable to illnesses, many of which they would normally fight off.

When a person is infected with HIV they are likely as time goes by to be ill more and more often. A person is said to have AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) when, usually several years after first becoming infected with HIV, they have developed one of a number of particularly severe illnesses.

HIV is present in the sexual fluids and blood of infected people. It can also be in the breast milk of infected women.

A risky activity is anything that makes it possible for the virus to pass from one person to another. This is why sexual intercourse without a condom is risky, because the virus, which is present in an infected person's sexual fluids, can pass directly into the body of their partner. Using a condom properly is a very effective way of preventing transmission of HIV during sexual intercourse.

Contact with an infected person's blood is risky if it allows the virus to pass into another person's body through cuts or grazes in their skin. This is why it can be risky being pricked by, or injecting with, a needle or syringe already used by someone else.

It is also possible for an infected woman to pass the virus on to her unborn baby either before or during birth. HIV can also be passed on through breast-feeding.

It is not possible to become infected with HIV through:

• sharing crockery and cutlery

• insect/animal bites

• touching, hugging or shaking hands

• eating food prepared by someone with HIV.

What is Safe Sex?

Safe sex refers to sexual activities which do not involve any sexual fluid from one person getting into another person's body. If two people are having safe sex then even if one person is infected there is no possibility of the other person becoming infected.

Safe sex activities include hugging, touching, caressing and mutual masturbation.

Kissing someone on the cheek, also known as social kissing, does not pose any risk of HIV transmission.

Deep or open mouthed kissing is considered a very low risk activity for transmission of HIV. This is because HIV is present in saliva but only in very minute quantities, insufficient to lead to HIV infection alone.

There has only been one instance of HIV infection as a result of kissing. This was as a result of infected blood getting into the mouth of the other person during open mouthed kissing. If you or your partner have blood in your mouth, you should avoid kissing until the bleeding stops.

What is safer Sex?

Safer sex is used to refer to a range of sexual activities that hold little risk of HIV infection or other sexually transmitted diseases.

Safer sex is often taken to mean using a condom for sexual intercourse. Using a condom makes it very hard for the virus to pass between people when they are having sexual intercourse. A condom, when used properly, acts as a physical barrier that prevents infected fluid getting into the other person's bloodstream.

Is there a cure for AIDS?

There is currently no cure for AIDS although in many countries greatly improved medical treatments are now available.

General Information || Symptoms || Stages