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What is HIV?
HIV is a virus. Viruses infect the cells that make up the human body and make copies of themselves within those cells. But unlike other viruses – the common cold, for instance – HIV attacks the immune system itself, the very thing that would normally get rid of a virus. There is no cure for HIV.
Treatment can only reduce the symptoms and effects. Medication can also help prevent the spread of the virus. And it’s harder for a person with HIV to fight off infections that wouldn’t have bothered them before. As time goes by, a person who has been infected with HIV is likely to become more ill more and more often until, usually several years after infection, they become ill with one of a number of particularly severe illnesses. It is at this point that they are said to have AIDS – when they first become seriously ill, or when the number of immune system cells in their body drops below a particular point.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is an extremely serious condition and at this stage the body has very little defence against any sort of infection.
How long does this take?
Without drug treatment, HIV infection can progress to AIDS in anything from a few months to a number of years. But – if you have a poor diet, or lack care and support, or are diagnosed late – it can be a lot quicker.
How is HIV passed on?
• Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected person
• Contact with an infected person’s blood
• Mother to child
• Use of infected blood products
• Intravenous drug use
Want to find out more?
The following websites provide more in-depth information about HIV and AIDS:
www.unaids.org/en/
www.who.int/hiv
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HIV and AIDS – the facts
Let’s face it, HIV seems a long way from many of our day-to-day concerns as we struggle with rising fuel bills, higher petrol prices, increasing food costs and the credit crunch. In the UK many of us are worried about keeping our homes and our jobs. So why should we be concerned about HIV? Because ordinary people around the world are living with HIV and dying from AIDS.
Over 25 million people have already died. Many, many millions more are infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. UNAIDS estimates that there are over 33.2 million people currently living with HIV or AIDS. Worldwide there are 6,800 new infections every day. More than 15 million children have lost one – or both – of their parents to an AIDS-related illness.
Virtually all countries have reported cases. Here in the UK, some 73,000 people live with HIV. Every year since 2000 the number of new infections has doubled.
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