Acquired immune deficiency syndrome: Difference between revisions

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus causes HIV infection and AIDS.  The virus attacks the immune system.  As the immune system weakens, the body is vulnerable to life-threatening infections and cancers.  Once a person has the virus, it stays inside the body for life.  The virus is spread or transmitted person-to-person in any of the following ways: through sexual contact including oral, vaginal, and anal sex, through blood via blood transfusions (now extremely rare in the U.S.) or needle sharing, and from mother to child - a pregnant woman can spread the virus to her fetus through their shared blood circulation, or a nursing mother can transmit it to her baby through feeding them her breast milk.  The virus is not spread by the following: casual contact such as hugging, mosquitoes, participating in sports, or touching items that were touched by a person infected with the virus.  HIV is not spread to a person who donates blood or organs. People who donate organs are never in direct contact with people who receive them. Likewise, a person who donates blood is never in contact with the person receiving it. In all these procedures, sterile needles and instruments are used.  But HIV can be spread to a person receiving blood or organs from an infected donor. To reduce this risk, blood banks and organ donor programs check by screening donors, blood, and tissues thoroughly. People at high risk of getting HIV include: drug users who share needles, infants born from mothers with HIV who did not receive HIV treatment during pregnancy, people who have unprotected sex, especially with people who have other high-risk behaviors, are HIV-positive, or have AIDS, also people who received blood transfusions or clotting products between 1977 and 1985, which was before screening for the virus became standard practice, and sexual partners of those who engage in high-risk activities such as injection drug use or anal sex.

After HIV infects the body, the virus has been found in saliva, tears, nervous system tissue and spinal fluid, blood, semen (including pre-seminal fluid, which is the liquid that comes out before ejaculation), vaginal fluid, and breast milk.  Only blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk have been shown to transmit infection to others.  If these body fluids come in contact with damaged tissue or is directly injected into a person's bloodstream, like a needle or syringe, transmission of the virus can possibly occur.  If the fluids come in contact with a mucous membrane, transmission can also possible occur.  Mucous membranes are soft, moist areas just inside the openings of one's body.  They are found inside the rectum, the vagina or the opening of the penis, and the mouth.<ref name=AIDSgov2>[http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/how-you-get-hiv-aids/ How Do You Get HIV or AIDS] ''AIDS.gov''. Web. 16 June 2014 (last updated).</ref>

 

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