HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
This serious virus attacks the body’s defence system, so illnesses can’t be fought off. A person is said to have AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) if they are infected with HIV and they have also developed a number of particularly severe illnesses.
How you get it:
Condomless penetrative sex (anal or vaginal) with a partner who has a detectable viral load, sharing contaminated needles, from mother to unborn baby or through breastfeeding, or by receiving infected blood for medical reasons.
Symptoms:
People with HIV can remain healthy for many years with no signs or symptoms at all. Symptoms of an immune system lowered can include oral thrush and chest infections.
Treatment:
There are now very good treatments available in the UK which can help people stay well for longer. There is no cure and no vaccine for HIV. The test for HIV is done using a sample of blood four weeks after possible risk.
If it’s not treated:
Severe illness leading to death due to AIDS.
Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U)
People who are taking effective treatment for HIV infection can’t pass the HIV virus on through unprotected sex.
This means that when a HIV positive person is on treatment and the amount of HIV (viral load) is reduced to an undetectable level, HIV cannot be transmitted to their sexual partners.
You can find out more at
http://i-base.info/u-equals-u/
https://www.preventionaccess.org/consensus
“When ART results in viral suppression, defined as less than 200 copies/ml or undetectable levels, it prevents sexual HIV transmission. Across three different studies, including thousands of couples and many thousand acts of sex without a condom or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), no HIV transmissions to an HIV-negative partner were observed when the HIV-positive person was virally suppressed. This means that people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.”
U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Dear Colleague Letter (September, 2017)
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