How Is HIV Spread?

How Is HIV Spread? HIV infection isn't like a cold or the flu. A person cannot get HIV by hugging or holding the hand of, sharing a school bus or classroom with, or visiting the home of someone who has HIV. HIV is passed only through direct contact with another person's body fluids, such as blood. The majority of people in North America get infected with HIV by:
having sexual contact with a person who has HIV
sharing needles or syringes (used to inject illegal drugs) with a person who has HIV
Other ways of getting HIV can occur when:
an infected pregnant woman passes it to her unborn child. (This can be prevented by treating the mother and child around the time the baby is delivered.) Because of the risk to an untreated baby, every pregnant woman should be tested for HIV.
a person has a blood transfusion (say: trans-fyoo-zhun) from a fairly large volume of blood. But in North America today, all donated blood is tested for HIV, so the risk of getting HIV is less than one in a million.
What Are the Symptoms of HIV and AIDS?Most people don't feel any different after they are infected with HIV. In fact, infected people often do not experience symptoms for years. Some people develop flu-like symptoms a few days to a few weeks after being infected, but these symptoms usually go away after several days.
An HIV-positive person will eventually begin to feel sick. The person might begin to have swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fevers that come and go, infections in the mouth, diarrhea, or he or she might feel tired for no reason all of the time. Eventually, the virus can infect all of the body's organs, including the brain, making it hard for the person to think and remember things.
When a person's T cell count gets very low, the immune system is so weak that many different diseases and infections by other germs can develop. These can be life threatening. For example, people with AIDS often develop pneumonia (say: nu-mo-nyah), which causes bad coughing and breathing problems. Other infections can affect the eyes, the organs of the digestive system, the kidneys, the lungs, and the brain. Some people develop rare kinds of cancers of the skin or immune system.
Most of the children who have HIV got it because their mothers were infected and passed the virus to them before they were born. Babies born with HIV infection may not show any symptoms at first, but the progression of AIDS is often faster in babies than in adults. Doctors need to watch them closely. Kids who have HIV or AIDS learn more slowly than healthy kids and tend to start walking and talking later.
How Are HIV and AIDS Diagnosed?A person can be infected with HIV without even knowing it. So doctors recommend that anyone who thinks he or she may have been exposed to the virus get tested - even if the chance of having been infected seems small. Doctors test a person's blood to find out if he or she is infected with HIV.
People who are HIV positive need to have more blood tests every so often. The doctor will want to check on how many T cells the person has. The lower the T cell count, the weaker the immune system and the greater the risk that someone will get very sick.
How Are HIV and AIDS Treated?Right now there is no cure for HIV or AIDS, but new medicines can help people live longer lives. Scientists are also researching vaccines that may one day help to prevent HIV infection, but it's a very tough assignment, and no one knows when these vaccines might become available. It's up to everyone to prevent AIDS by avoiding the behaviors that lead to HIV infection.
Can HIV and AIDS Be Prevented?People can help stop the spread of HIV by avoiding sexual contact with infected people and by not sharing needles or syringes.
Health care workers (such as doctors, nurses, and dentists) help prevent the spread of HIV by wearing plastic gloves when working on a patient. Hospitals have strict procedures for handling samples of blood and other body fluids to prevent others from coming in contact with HIV.