Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS Treatment & Prevention

What is HIV?

Human Immunodeficiency Virus also known as HIV is a virus that has been shown as the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). AIDS is the last stage of a HIV infection. HIV falls into a group of viruses know as retroviruses.

Prevention Methods

Preventing HIV can be quite an easy task if you know the right steps to take and how to do it. Some Prevention Methods for stopping someone/yourself from transmitting HIV include the following methods:

1. Use a Condom the right way every time you have sex.

2. Take medicines to prevent or treat HIV.
3. Choose less risky sexual behaviors.
4. Get tested for HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.
5. Limit your number of sex partners.

By following these precautions your chance of staying HIV free will stay high.

Detection

Detecting HIV can be done in two main ways including a nucleic acid test (NAT) which most the time will give results of whether you have a HIV infection 10 – 33 days after exposure and an antigen/antibody test that is carried out by a laboratory on blood from one of your veins, this can detect a HIV infection from about 18 – 45 days after exposure.

Symptoms/Signs

HIV can be easy task to detect once you know what you’re looking for as some of the symptoms are unnatural. The symptoms of HIV include:

Pain in the abdomen, Pain while swallowing, Dry coughs, Whole body fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, malaise, night sweats or sweating, Difficulty swallowing or soreness, sores or swelling on the groin, ulcers or white tongue, opportunistic infection, headache, oral thrush, pneumonia, red blotches, severe unintentional weight loss, skin rash, or swollen lymph nodes

Treatments

There is currently no cure that exists for AIDS but strict adherence to antiretroviral regimens (ARV’s) can dramatically slow down the progress of the disease as well as stopping secondary complications and infections

Australian Stats

Adults and children living with HIV: 28,000 [23,000 – 31,000]

Adults aged 15 and over living with HIV: 28,000 [23,000 – 31,000]

Women aged 15 and over living with HIV: 3300 [2900 – 3700]

Men aged 15 and over living with HIV: 24 000 [20 000 – 28 000]