HIV (Human Immunodeficency Virus) is a virus which attacks the body's immune system. For a certain period of time, which may be several years, the body's defence mechanism will keep the HIV infection under control. During this time, a person with HIV may feel completely well and have no symptoms. However, in the majority of cases, the immune system eventually needs help, in the form of anti-HIV drugs, to keep the HIV infection under control.
Although you may still hear the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom) it is no longer used by doctors. They prefer to talk of late-stage of advanced HIV infection. Before effective treatments, AIDS was a state some infected with HIV almost inevitably entered as HIV attacked their immune system. This is no longer the case.
In order for someone to become infected, a sufficient amount of HIV must enter their bloodstream. This level of HIV is found in some, but not all of the body fluids of someone infected with HIV. Those body fluids which contain enough HIV to infect someone are: · blood · sperm and seminal fluid · vaginal fluids, including menstrual fluids · breast milk Other body fluids like saliva, sweat or urine do not contain enough virus to infect another person.
There are a number of routes, all quite difficult to achieve by accident, by which infectious body fluids from someone with HIV may enter the bloodstream of someone else: · Directly into the bloodstream; for example, via a puncture caused by injection equipment. · Via an organ transplant or blood transfusion. · Through the internal surface (mucous membrane) of the rectum, vagina, cervix or urethra. HIV cannot pass though intact external skin. It cannot pass through the air like a cold or flu virus.
HIV can pass from an infected person to an uninfected person during unprotected penetrative sexual intercourse; that is, sex where the penis, unprotected by a condom, enters the vagina or anus. Using a condom with a water-based lubricant or a femidom during vaginal or anal penetrative sex will prevent transmission of HIV and many other sexually transmitted diseases.
Up until recently, in the UK, Northern Europe and parts of the United States, the most serious impact of the virus has been felt by gay en. Thirty four percent of men in the UK who were infected by HV before the end of 2002 were infected through sexual intercourse with other men.