Hiv Treatment Side Effects
Like all drugs, ART can cause side effects. These vary, depending on the person and type of treatment. Even people taking the same HIV drugs can have different side effects. The most common are:
A hypersensitivity reaction to an HIV drug called abacavir which consists of liver damage or severe skin rashes, can be life-threatening. Call your doctor or get emergency care right away if you think you have a severe reaction to this or any medication you take. Before you start any drug, make sure your doctor explains what side effects to watch out for.
Treatment as prevention: The best way to stay healthy and protect others is to start and stick with treatment. When your viral load is undetectable, you will keep yourself healthy, and thereâs no chance you can pass the virus to your sexual partner.
How Is Hiv Transmitted Through Needles
HIV isnt transmitted only through sexual contact. Sharing needles also puts a person at higher risk of contracting HIV.
When a needle is injected into a persons body, it breaks the skin barrier. If the needle has already been injected into another person, it can carry traces of their blood, along with any infections they have. The contaminated needle can introduce these infections into the second persons body.
Researchers dont know if having an undetectable viral load reduces the risk of HIV transmission through shared needles, but its reasonable to assume it may provide some risk reduction.
HIV can affect anyone. Whatever their age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or race, everyone should take steps to protect themselves. But due to socioeconomic factors, some demographic groups have higher HIV transmission rates and generally are more affected by HIV.
According to the CDC , the general demographic traits most affected by HIV are:
Transgender women are also highly impacted by HIV transmissions as a population, reports the CDC .
These groups are disproportionately affected by HIV, but they arent inherently at greater risk of contracting HIV. An individuals personal risk depends on their behaviors, not on their age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, or any other demographic factor.
Hiv Is An Infection That Can Lead To Aids
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Its a virus that breaks down certain cells in your immune system . When HIV damages your immune system, its easier to get really sick and even die from infections that your body could normally fight off.
About 1.1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, and more than 38,000 new infections happen every year. Most people with HIV dont have any symptoms for many years and feel totally fine, so they might not even know they have it.
Once you have HIV, the virus stays in your body for life. Theres no cure for HIV, but medicines can help you stay healthy. HIV medicine lowers or even stops your chances of spreading the virus to other people. Studies show that using HIV treatment as directed can lower the amount of HIV in your blood so much that it might not even show up on a test when this happens, you cant transmit HIV through sex.Treatment is really important . Without treatment, HIV can lead to AIDS. But with medicine, people with HIV can live long, healthy lives and stop the spread of HIV to others.
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Ways You Can Contract Hiv
- Sexual Intercourse This is one of the most common ways of contracting HIV. Sexual intercourse with an infected person without the use of a condom accounts for more than half of the HIV transmission cases. Females have the highest risk of infection when having unprotected sex. This is because vaginal membranes are likely to tear and create a path for infected fluids.
- Anal Sex Among all sexual behaviors, anal sex carries the highest risk. People participating in anal sex have a higher risk of contracting HIV compared to those who don’t. Anal membranes can tear allowing transmission of infected fluids.
- Oral Sex Tears in the gums or mouth of an infected person are highly susceptible to transferring the virus to another.
- Blood Transfusion Cases of contracting HIV through blood transfusion have been high in the recent past. Currently it is considered to be low risk. If you receive blood from an infected person you will contract the disease.
- Mother child Transmission Cases of this type of transmission have been reduced over time. It is possible for an HIV-positive mother to transmit the infection to her child. This can be before birth, at birth or through breastfeeding. These cases have been minimized by doctors providing necessary precautions.
- Sharing Of Sharp Objects This is where you share sharp or piercing objects with an infected person. If you share tools such as needles, syringes and tattooing tools with an infected person you are likely to contract the infection.
How Does Hiv Affect The Body
The human immune system involves many types of cells which guard against germs responsible for most diseases. The immune system’s most important guard cells are B-cells and T-cells, which are special white blood cells. B-cells and T-cells cooperate to fight any germ that attacks the human body.
B-cells produce particular proteins, called antibodies, that try to neutralize the invading germ. After a person recovers from an infection, these antibodies continue to circulate in the bloodstream, acting as part of the immune system’s “memory.” Immune system memory explains why a person rarely suffers a second attack from an infectious disease such as measles. If the same germ is encountered again, the antibodies will recognize and neutralize it. T-cells attack the germ directly and try to kill it.
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People Think Its Easy To Contract Hiv Thats A Good Thing Right Maybe Not Guest Post By Jason Kerwin
This is the fourteenth in our series of posts by students on the job market this year.People are afraid of HIV. Moreover, people around the world are convinced that the virus is easier to get than it actually is. The median person thinks that if you have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person a single time, you will get HIV for sure. The truth is that its not nearly that easy to get HIV the medical literature estimates that the transmission rate is actually about 0.1% per sex act, or 10% per year.
Great stuff! I’ve wanted to see precisely this paper for a while. I think it’s morally opprobrious that we exaggerate the risks to people, and it’s very interesting to also see that this backfires through the previously only theorized fatalism channel.
I was 12 when magic Johnson came out that he wasHIV positive. I am now 37 and sex still scares me and I can honestly say I barely get any enjoyment out of it. This was helpful I’ll relax a little bit more
my partner of six years is HIV positive,this has affected our sexual relationship and we do not have any child yet,because of his condition.he has been on hiv drug all this while and the VL shows 0.1%,can we make love without me contacting the virus?
How Hard Is It To Contract Hiv
by LukePublished on December 9, 2016Updated on March 5, 2019
If youre wondering how hard is it to contract HIV, chances are its because of the many misconceptions surrounding HIV. There are lots of myths people fall for, which can be difficult to dispel. Many people dont learn about HIV and AIDS in school. Even those who do learn about it often forget what theyve learned or arent taught much. One of the things many people have misunderstandings about is how HIV is transmitted. Many people believe that it can be transmitted through kissing or touching. Understanding HIV and AIDS and how hard is it to contract HIV is important for a number of reasons. Its essential for people to look after their own sexual health as well as reduce the stigma surrounding how to contract HIV.
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How Can A Person Reduce The Risk Of Getting Hiv
Anyone can get HIV, but you can take steps to protect yourself from HIV.
- Get tested for HIV. Talk to your partner about HIV testing and get tested before you have sex. Use the GetTested locator from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find an HIV testing location near you.
- Choose less risky sexual behaviors. HIV is mainly spread by having anal or vaginal sex without a condom or without taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV.
- Use condoms every time you have sex. Read this fact sheet from CDC on how to use condoms correctly.
- Limit your number of sexual partners. The more partners you have, the more likely you are to have a partner with poorly controlled HIV or to have a partner with a sexually transmitted disease . Both of these factors can increase the risk of HIV.
- Get tested and treated for STDs. Insist that your partners get tested and treated, too. Having an STD can increase your risk of getting HIV or spreading it to others.
- Talk to your health care provider about pre-exposure prophylaxis . PrEP is an HIV prevention option for people who do not have HIV but who are at risk of getting HIV. PrEP involves taking a specific HIV medicine every day to reduce the risk of getting HIV through sex or injection drug use. For more information, read the HIVinfo fact sheet on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis .
- Do not inject drugs. But if you do, use only sterile drug injection equipment and water, and never share your equipment with others.
Hiv Has A Powerful Opponent
Before 1996, contracting the HIV was basically a death sentence. But then, over the course of the next two decades, a regimen of drugs known as antiretroviral therapy evolved and came into use. This drug regimen helps prevent the virus from replicating and can help keep the infection from causing AIDS, transforming a fatal disease into a manageable one. These drugs have been an amazing scientific advancement, Dr. Santiago says. Most of the people who die nowadays are those who are unaware they have until symptoms become severe. Even people who think they may have been exposed to HIV have options if they act very quickly. The CDC advises you to alert your healthcare provider and start a regimen of ART medicines called post-exposure prophylaxis within 72 hours.
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Facts About Hiv/aids Everyone Should Know
Learning the truth about HIV and AIDS can help prevent transmission and save lives beginning with your own.
Contracting the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is no longer seen as a death sentence in developed countries, which have the resources to treat it. Still, millions of people around the world contract HIV and die of the last stage of the viruss infection: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , an estimated 1.1 million Americans over the age of 13 were living with HIV at the end of 2014.
There are a lot of reasons why people need to know about HIV/AIDS, from determining whether they are at risk themselves to even how to speak sensitively to someone who has the disease, says Steven Santiago, MD, the chief medical officer of Care Resource, a nonprofit HIV/AIDS organization in South Florida. Here are 10 facts that you should know.
How Can A Person Who Is Hiv Positive Prevent Passing Hiv To Others
Take HIV medicines daily. Treatment with HIV medicines helps people with HIV live longer, healthier lives. ART cannot cure HIV, but it can reduce the amount of HIV in the body . One of the main goals of ART is to reduce a person’s viral load to an undetectable level. An undetectable viral load means that the level of HIV in the blood is too low to be detected by a viral load test. People with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.
Here are some other steps you can take to prevent HIV transmission:
- Use condoms correctly every time you have sex.
- Talk to your partner about taking PrEP.
- If you inject drugs, do not share your needles, syringes, or other drug equipment with your partner.
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Tattoos And Body Piercings
- There are no known cases in the United States of anyone getting HIV this way.
- However, it is possible to get HIV from tattooing or body piercing if the equipment used for these procedures has someone elses blood in it or if the ink is shared. This is more likely to happen when the person doing the procedure is unlicensed because of the potential for unsanitary practices such as sharing needles or ink.
- If you get a tattoo or a body piercing, be sure that the person doing the procedure is properly licensed and that they use only new or sterilized needles, ink, and other supplies.
Can Hiv Be Prevented Or Avoided
The best way to prevent HIV is to not have sex with a person who has HIV, or share a needle with a person who has HIV. However, there is also a medicine called PrEP that people can take before coming into contact with HIV that can prevent them from getting an HIV infection.
PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis. It is for people who are at long-term risk of getting HIV either through sexual activity or by injecting drugs. If youre taking PrEP and come into contact with HIV, the medicine makes it difficult for HIV to develop inside your body.
Other ways to prevent HIV include:
- When you have sex, practice safer sex by using a condom. The best condom is a male latex condom. A female condom is not as effective but does offer some protection.
- Do not share needles and syringes.
- Never let someone elses blood, semen, urine, vaginal fluid, or feces get into your anus, vagina, or mouth.
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What Happens When A Person Contracts Hiv
An HIV infection is caused by a virus. By damaging CD4 T cells, it targets and gradually weakens the immune system. As a result of this damage, the body becomes less capable of fighting off other infections over time. Infections that are typically mild can become life-threatening if the immune system is compromised enough.
Male Vs Female Partners
When having vaginal sex without a condom with a partner who has a penis, the vaginal membranes are more likely to tear than the partners penis.
In condomless anal sex with a partner who has a penis, the rectal membranes are also more likely to tear than the partners penis. Microscopic tears create an easier path for HIV and other STIs to enter the body when exposed.
Its possible for a partner with a penis to contract HIV during vaginal and anal sex. If a female partner is living with HIV with a detectable viral load, it can be carried in her vaginal secretions. If her partner has open sores on their mouth or penis, they can create a gateway for vaginal secretions or other bodily fluids with HIV to enter the body.
Uncircumcised men are at higher risk of contracting HIV from condomless sex than circumcised men. The delicate membranes of foreskin can tear during sex, creating a pathway for HIV to enter the body.
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What About Blood Or Breast Milk
HIV is sometimes passed on from mother to child during pregnancy. It can also happen during birth or when breastfeeding. However, the risk of this can be reduced, providing that the mother has received a diagnosis. Pregnant women who take HIV medication can reduce the risk of infecting their child. They may also have a C-section instead of a natural birth. HIV medication is also given to babies for several weeks after birth. In countries where safe drinking water is accessible, formula milk is recommended.
There are also other ways HIV could be contracted through contact with positive blood. These include health workers accidentally being exposed to infected fluids and blood transfusions. However, both of these are very unlikely, especially in developed countries. There are some countries where the risk of infection from a blood transfusion is higher for example, some countries in Africa or the former Soviet Union.
What Will Being Undetectable Mean For Me
Having an undetectable viral load means that your ART is effectively controlling your HIV. This will protect your immune system and help you to stay in good health.
Being undetectable also means that you dont have to worry about passing HIV onto your sexual partners. For many people this is just as important to them, giving them relief from the anxiety of passing HIV on. Some people find that knowing theyre undetectable makes it easier to with others, as it can be reassuring for others to know that your health is protected and you cant pass it on too.
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How Do Stem Cells Cure Hiv
Its a little complicated. At a macro level, stem cell treatments replace someones immune system with that of another persons, says Thomas Giordano, M.D., professor and chief of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who did not work with the patient.
These are intense treatments that wipe out a persons immune systemand hopefully the cancer they are treating, too, Dr. Giordano says. Since HIV lives in a persons immune systems cells, it kills many of the cells that contain HIV. Once you kill the bone marrow, you have to restore it with stem cells, otherwise the person will die since you cant live without the immune cells, platelets, and red blood cells that your bone marrow makes.
Thats where a donor comes in. A transplant alone is not enough to cure HIVthe HIV will come back, Dr. Giordano says. It turns out, some people are immune to HIV infection. These people have a genetic mutation that we can detect on tests, called the delta 32 mutation of the CCR5 receptor. It is a pretty rare mutation, and is more common in people from northern European ancestry.
This is what happened with the first patient who was cured of HIV, Timothy Brown, aka the Berlin Patient, Dr. Adalja explains. He was treated for acute myeloid leukemia and received a stem cell transplant from a donor who had a rare genetic abnormality that gives the immune cells that HIV targets a natural resistance to the virus, per The Wall Street Journal.