HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, a disease that weakens the body’s immune system and may have fatal consequences.

What Is HIV/AIDS? HIV/AIDS weakens the body’s immune system. AIDS has become one of the deadliest diseases in human history.

What Is HIV/AIDS? Once the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) enters the body, it finds and destroys the white blood cells that fight disease. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) A virus that attacks the immune system

What Is HIV/AIDS? The final stage of an HIV infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) A disease in which the immune system is weakened

What Is HIV/AIDS? Approximately 12 million of the 40 million people who have HIV/AIDS worldwide are in the 15 to 24 age group. Half of all new HIV infections are among young people, and many of the young people who are infected do not know it.

What Is HIV/AIDS? Health care officials consider HIV/AIDS a pandemic.

Understanding HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS is transmitted in a variety of ways. HIV is transmitted among humans only when one person’s infected blood, semen, or vaginal secretions comes in contact with another person’s broken skin or mucous membranes.

Understanding HIV/AIDS HIV is spread in three ways. During sexual intercourse By sharing needles From mother to baby

Understanding HIV/AIDS Anyone who uses needles contaminated with HIV allows the virus to enter directly into his or her bloodstream. Needles used for body piercings and tattoos also can come in contact with contaminated blood.

Understanding HIV/AIDS A pregnant female infected with HIV can pass the virus to her baby through the umbilical cord, during childbirth, or through breastfeeding. If an expectant mother knows she’s infected, there are steps she and her health care providers can take to prevent her child from contracting HIV.

How HIV/AIDS Affects the Immune System

HIV attacks the body’s immune system by destroying lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are specialized white blood cells that perform many immune functions, such as fighting pathogens.

How HIV/AIDS Affects the Immune System As more lymphocytes are destroyed, the immune system becomes weaker and weaker. The body then becomes vulnerable to AIDS- opportunistic illnesses, infections the body could fight off if the immune system were healthy.

How HIV/AIDS Affects the Immune System HIV infection usually goes through identifiable stages before progressing to AIDS: Asymptomatic stage Middle stage Symptomatic stage AIDS stage

How HIV/AIDS Affects the Immune System Asymptomatic stage Middle stage Symptomatic stage AIDS stage The virus invades and takes over helper T cells. Patients experience fever, headache, sore throat, rash, diarrhea, and enlarged lymph nodes. Patients experiences flu-like symptoms, such as headache, fever, body aches, swollen glands, diminished appetite, weight loss, and skin rashes. Patients have immune systems that are so weakened that they may die from illnesses from which they would ordinarily recover.

Giving or Receiving Blood: Is It Safe? The risk for HIV infection through the transfusion of blood or blood products is extremely low.

HIV/AIDS is preventable and treatable, but is incurable.

Preventing HIV/AIDS There are many actions you can take to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS. The CDC estimates that about 25 percent of the people in the United States who are infected with HIV do not know they are infected.

Preventing HIV/AIDS The following healthful behaviors will help protect you from infection:     Practice abstinence. Do not share needles, knives, and razors. Avoid situations where drug and alcohol use might compromise your decision making. Use refusal skills when you feel pressured to engage in risky behaviors.

Diagnosing HIV/AIDS Several tests are used to diagnose HIV/AIDS. If someone believes he or she may have been exposed to HIV, the person needs to be tested.

Diagnosing HIV/AIDS Typically, a blood sample or an oral specimen from between the inside of the cheek and the gum is collected and sent to a laboratory for analysis. At most testing sites, qualified personnel are available to answer questions, make referrals, and explain results.

Types of Laboratory HIV Tests After collected samples are sent to a laboratory, technicians screen them for HIV antibodies. A person’s body does not naturally have HIV antibodies: they are produced only in the presence of an infection.

EIA Test If the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test results are positive, then the EIA test is repeated. EIA A test that screens for the presence of HIV antibodies in the blood

EIA Test In a positive EIA test, HIV antibodies bind to the HIV antigens on a plastic bead coated with HIV proteins.

Western Blot Test The Western blot test is used only after EIA tests produce positive results. Western blot A test that detects HIV antibodies and confirms the results of earlier EIA tests

Western Blot Test If the results of the two EIA tests and the Western blot test are all positive, a person is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Many health departments and HIV/ AIDS information and counseling centers will pay for the costs of these tests.

Additional Tests A rapid test can be used in situations where the infected person might not come back to learn the results of the test. Rapid test An HIV test that produces results in only 20 minutes

Treating HIV/AIDS Medications can slow the growth of HIV/AIDS, but there is no cure. Drugs have been developed that slow the growth of HIV and treat the opportunistic infections that occur in individuals who do not have healthy immune systems.

Treating HIV/AIDS To slow the growth of the AIDS virus, people take a combination of drugs, a treatment known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). In 2006, the FDA approved a once-daily, single-pill treatment for HIV/AIDS.