How to prevent HIV/Aids

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids).

HIV weakens your immune system by destroying your protective cells until you are unable to fight off even minor illnesses. You can have HIV without any symptoms. Getting tested and starting treatment early gives you the best chance of living a long life. Aids is the final stage of an HIV infection. People with Aids have very low counts of certain white blood cells and severely damaged immune systems.

Without treatment, HIV infections progress to Aids in about 10 years. The difference between HIV and Aids is that HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system. Aids is a condition that results from an HIV infection when the immune system is severely weakened. Thanks to treatment that slows down the effects of the virus, not everyone with HIV progresses to Aids. But without treatment, almost all people living with HIV will advance to Aids. HIV initially makes you feel sick with flu-like symptoms.

The progression from HIV to Aids and common symptoms

Then it can hide in your body for a long time without symptoms. During that time, it destroys your T-cells. When your T-cells are very low or you begin to get certain illnesses that people with healthy immune systems don’t get, HIV has progressed to Aids. Aids can cause rapid weight loss, extreme tiredness, mouth or genital ulcers, fevers, night sweats and skin discolorations. Other illnesses and cancers often happen in people with Aids. Anyone can get HIV if they’re exposed to the virus. Having sex without a condom or sharing needles to inject drugs are the most common ways that HIV spreads. Another common way is the transmission from mother to child during pregnancy and after.

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High risk populations

Some populations are statistically more affected by HIV than others. Homophobia, racism, poverty and social stigmas around HIV continue to drive inequities and keep people from accessing high-quality healthcare.

Groups disproportionately affected by HIV include:

• People who identify as gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men.
• Sex workers.

Symptoms and causes

You can have HIV without having any symptoms. Sometimes you’ll have flu-like symptoms when you first get infected with HIV.

These can include fever; chills; fatigue; sore throat, muscle aches, night sweats, rash, swollen lymph nodes and mouth sores. Opportunistic infections are ones that someone with a healthy immune system could fight off. When HIV has advanced to Aids, these illnesses take advantage of your weakened immune system.

You’re more likely to get certain cancers when you have Aids. These cancers and opportunistic infections together are called Aids-defining illnesses. Aids-defining illnesss are opportunistic infections, certain cancers (caused by viruses) and some neurological conditions.

They include Burkitt lymphoma; candidiasis or thrush of bronchi, oesophagus, trachea or lungs; parasite caused diarrhoea that lasts more than a month; coccidioidomycosis, spread outside of your lungs (disseminated/ extrapulmonary); chronic intestinal cryptosporidiosis (lasting more than a month); cytomegalovirus disease (other than liver, spleen or lymph nodes), onset at age older than one month; cytomegalovirus retinitis (with loss of vision), encephalopathy attributed to HIV; extrapulmonary cryptococcosis; herpes simplex ulcers (lasting more than a month); herpes simplex bronchitis, pneumonitis or esophagitis (onset at age older than one month); histoplasmosis spread outside the lungs (disseminated/extrapulmonary); HIV wasting syndrome; invasive cervical cancer; immunoblastic lymphoma; kaposi sarcoma; multiple or recurrent bacterial infections; mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), spread outside the lungs (disseminated/ extrapulmonary); mycobacterium kansasii, spread outside the lungs (disseminated/extrapulmonary); mycobacterium tuberculosis of any site; mycobacterium; other species or unidentified species, spread outside the lungs (disseminated/extrapulmonary); pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia; primary lymphoma of the brain; progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy; recurrent pneumonia; recurrent Salmonela septicemia (nontyphoid); toxoplasmosis of the brain (onset at age older than one month).

How does HIV spread

You can get HIV from the blood, semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk and rectal fluids of an infected person. The virus can enter your body through the mouth, anus, penis, vagina or broken skin.

It can’t get through the skin unless there is a cut or wound. Pregnant people with HIV can give it to their babies. Kissing is not a common way to get infected. If other body fluids are shared, such as if both people have open sores in their mouths or bleeding gums, there is a chance you could get HIV from deep kissing.

Diagnosis and tests

HIV is diagnosed with a test of blood or saliva. If the result is negative, you may need to retest if you had a possible exposure in the previous three months before testing or a possible exposure within the window period for a test done with a blood draw.

Management and treatment

There is no cure for HIV, but there are many treatments that can slow its progression significantly. To control the illness one can take a combination of pills daily. This is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). The goal of ART is to reduce HIV in the blood (viral load) to an amount that’s undetectable by an HIV test and to slow the weakening of the immune system.

Prevention

The best way to reduce your risk of HIV is to be aware of how it spreads and protect yourself. Having sex without a condom and sharing needles to take drugs are the most common ways that HIV spreads.

Medications that protect you from HIV

There are medications that can help prevent HIV in people who have been exposed or are at high risk for exposure. These include pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis.

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