HIV

What is HIV?

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) damages the body's immune system so that over time it becomes vulnerable to illness and infections.

How is it passed on?

HIV is mainly passed on in the following ways:

• By unprotected vaginal or anal sex.
• Receiving infected blood or donated organs.
• By sharing needles or syringes when injecting drugs.
• A pregnant woman with HIV can pass it on to her baby during birth, although there is now a very effective treatment to help prevent this. HIV can also be passed on through breastfeeding

Signs and symptoms

• A flu-like illness may occur shortly after getting infected with HIV, but most people don't notice they have become infected.
  
• Symptoms vary from person to person and occur when the immune system is so damaged that other infections begin to cause health problems. 
  
• It mainly causes ill health by damaging the immune system, leading to serious infections and cancers.

Tests and treatment

• The only way to establish if a person has the virus is for them to have an HIV test.
  
• After a discussion about the test and the consequences of the result, a sample of blood will be taken and tested.
  
• It is necessary to wait three months after infection might have occurred before doing the HIV test.
  
• There is no cure for HIV. However, drugs are available to slow down the damage that HIV does to the immune system. People who are HIV positive can now stay healthy for many years with anti-retroviral drugs.

Long Term Effects

When HIV leads to more serious infections and associated cancers, then you're said to have developed Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDs). While treatment for HIV/AIDs has improved a lot recently, there are still no cures.