AIDS FACTS
| More About HIV/AIDS | ||
| Information | ||
Hiv and Aids can be transmitted through different ways. Most people know HIV is a STD (sexually transmitted disease) and AIDS is the advanced form of it. People don't bother to remember that is can also be transmitted through unsafe needles and blood. If you already have a STD, it can increase the risks of getting infected with HIV/AIDS. Over 42 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. There are 14,000 new infections every day (95 percent in developing countries). HIV/AIDS is a "disease of young people" with half of the 5 million new infections each year occurring among people ages 15 to 24. HIV stands for "Human Immunodeficiency Virus" and AIDS stands for "Aquired Immune Definciency Syndrome". When you are infected with HIV, the virus weakens your immune system so that it has difficulty fighting off infections. If you have HIV, it does not automatically mean you have AIDS too. Some people can live with HIV forever and not ever get AIDS. People living with AIDS have seriously weakened immune systems, that it might get to a point where medical attention will become necessary to prevent or treat life and death illnesses.
|
||
The Symptons of HIV: Researchers use the term "acute HIV infection" to describe the period of time between when a person gets infected and when anti-biodies produce in the body. This last for about 6-12 weeks. Some people who are infected, recieve "flu-like" symptoms. These symptoms, which usually last no more than a few days, might include fevers, chills, night sweats and rashes (not cold-like symptoms). Sometimes the symptoms are so minor, you don't even notice it. These symptoms can also cause other infections in the body. Symptoms of AIDS: There aren't regular symptoms for AIDS, usually they're severe symptoms of organsims that cannot handle infections. The common time to recieve AIDS when infected with HIV is 7-10 years. TREATMENTS: HIV antiretroviral treatment is the main type of treatment for people infected with HIV or AIDS. It's not a cure. Though, it can help people not get severly sick for many years. The treatment calls for the infected person to take a series of drugs everyday for the rest of their lives. The drugs work by attacking the HIV infection to slower down it's replication in the body. These drugs are often referred to as:
|
||