| Sections on AIDS |
| Symptoms |
The most common symptoms of AIDS, which are caused by life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections that usually do not affect the healthy people, include repeated fever, nausea and vomit, severe and persistent diarrhea, weight loss and extreme fatigue, etc
Top| Transmission |
Having known how HIV is transmitted is the key not only for making strategies of prevention but also for having the proper attitude toward people with HIV. Simply saying, HIV spreads through three ways: having sex with an infected partner, contacting with HIV infected blood such as sharing drug needles or syringes, and transmitting from infected women to babies during pregnancy. The virus goes into the healthy body through the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or mouth during unprotected sex with the infected partner.
Around 95% of people across the world living with HIV live in Africa and over 70% of all HIV cases worldwide are through heterosexual sex. Contacting with infected blood is the second major and easy way to spread HIV. For example, The Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center confirms that almost half of New Yorkers with AIDS got HIV by sharing drug needles or syringes. The reason some abusing drug people share dirty needles or syringes is that governor prohibits new/clear needles or syringes circulating on the market in some areas, so they are in a very high risk situation to get HIV/AIDS. Before the harm of HIV/AIDS was realized, and also because some governments neglected the safety of the blood banks transfusion, used to be one way to spread HIV.
Most children with HIV are infected by mothers with HIV during pregnancy. Approximately one-quarter to one-third of all untreated pregnant women with HIV will pass the infection to their babies. However, if the mothers have gotten the proper treatment, the chances of the babies being infected can be dramatically reduced. It is worthy to mention that many scientists have found that HIV is not spread through saliva, sweat, tears, urine, or feces by studying the families of people with HIV, and HIV is not spread through casual contact such as the sharing of food utensils, towels and bedding, swimming pools, telephones, or toilet seats.
Top| Stages |