Street Name: HIV, the monster,
How do you get it: HIV is spread through four bodily fluids: blood, semen, vaginal fluid and breast milk ( you cannot get HIV from saliva ). Outside of drug use, the most common way people are infected with HIV is anal and vaginal sex.
There is some risk of HIV transmission with oral sex, but it is very minimal, usually because of oral sex with cold sores or cuts in the mouth.
Symptoms: HIV can take years to show any serious symptoms. Some people experience flu like symptoms within days of the virus entering the body. One or two months after the virus has entered the body symptoms can show up, such as fever, sore muscles, night sweats, joint pain, sore throat, or mouth or genital warts. Other signs include recurring yeast infections and a cough that doesn’t go away. Somewhere between 30% to 60% of newly infected people have symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
In the later stages of untreated HIV or AIDS symptoms include night sweats, nail fungus, recurring infections and illness, rapid weight loss and fatigue.
Treatment/ Relief: There is no cure for HIV. There are drug treatments that keep the virus under control. HIV is no longer the killer it use to be. Medications called anitviral is now more accessible and can help manage HIV. People diagnosed with HIV can live long, high quality lives.
Nationally:
1 in 32 black women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.
1 in 16 black men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.
In California:
Over 200,000 HIV cases are reported in California. ( graph this information)
White – make up 51%
Black – make up 18%
Hispanic – make up 26%
Other – less than 1 percent
What should you know?
There are 34 million people live with HIV worldwide. The vast majority are in low- and middle-income countries. An estimated 2.5 million people were newly infected with the virus in 2011. Globally, HIV is the most infectious killer.
Special spotlight note: French kissing might not be as safe as you think. In very, very rare cases, HIV has been passed through deep, french kissing. In all cases, open sores in the mouth or bleeding gums exchanged with infected blood was present
How is pregnancy affected?
With the new antiviral drugs and technologies, there is a very minimal risk for HIV transmission from mother to infant during the birthing process. However rare, the virus can be transmitted through the birthing process or breastfeeding.