BASIC EDUCATION AND INFROMATION ABOUT HIV/AIDS
Prevention Through Education
There is a great need for HIV/AIDS education and preventative services. Join our fight against AIDS!
The main reason for AIDS education is to prevent new infections from taking place. Our education program is focused on teaching people how to apply the information practically in their daily living – such as how to use condoms, how to suggest and practice safer sex, how to prevent infection in a medical environment or any other situation with a potential for exposure.
Become a partner with Advantage Foundation and help us educate and inform people and in turn help save lives.
Who needs to be educated?
Anyone who is vulnerable to AIDS, and almost everyone is vulnerable, unless they know how to protect themselves. It's not only young people, injecting drug users or gay men who become infected - the virus has affected a cross-section of society. This means that education ought to be aimed at all parts of society, not only those groups who are seen as being particularly high-risk.
PREVENTION
Why the ABC's are Essential to HIV/AIDS Prevention
What are the ABC's?
The ABC's are three parts of an HIV/AIDS behavior change initiative that encourages:
Abstinence (and delay of first intercourse);
Being faithful (monogamy and reduction in the number of sexual partners); and
Condom use during sexual intercourse.
Studies show that this kind of comprehensive approach to HIV prevention and sexuality education is far more successful in reducing risky behaviors than abstinence-only programs, particularly among young people. Despite the demonstrated success of this approach, however, the majority of at-risk individuals lack access to the information or services that could save their lives.
W nee your help to make this information available to the people who are in desperate need.
What is the difference between being HIV positive and having AIDS?
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks the immune system and damages it. A damaged immune system cannot fight germs well.
There are many stages during the HIV infection. AIDS is an advanced HIV stage. AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. "Acquired" means that it is given by someone else as opposed to being something that just happens. "Immunodeficiency" means that the immune system is weak. "Syndrome" means a group of conditions.
AIDS is diagnosed when the immune system is weak, as shown by a CD4 count if less than 200 cells/milliliter, or by the presence of certain opportunistic infections (for example, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and fungal infection of the esophagus), tumors or wasting. AIDS is the condition that results from HIV after it has done significant damage to the immune system.
A person who is HIV positive (meaning a person who has HIV) does not necessarily have AIDS, but a person who has AIDS is HIV positive. A person is said to have AIDS if the person is infected with HIV and has certain signs and symptoms of the disease. In short, HIV is the virus, and AIDS is the disease that it causes.
Any person who has HIV, whether the person is sick with AIDS or not, should be under the care of a qualified physician. Any person who has HIV, whether the person is sick with AIDS or not, can pass the virus on to other people.
YOU CAN GET HIV FROM . . .
Vaginal sex
HIV is found in the sexual fluids of an infected person. For a man, this means in the fluids which come out of the penis before and during sex. For a woman, it means HIV is in the fluids produced by the vagina before and during sex to help make intercourse easier.
If a man with HIV has vaginal intercourse without a condom, infected fluid can pass into the woman's blood stream through a tiny cut or sore inside her body. Such a cut or sore wouldn't always be visible, and could be so small that the woman wouldn't know about it.
If a woman with HIV has sexual intercourse without a condom, HIV could get into the man's blood through a sore patch on his penis or by getting into the tube that runs down the penis.
Oral sex
Oral sex with an infected partner does carry some risk of infection. If a person sucks on the penis of an infected man, for example, infected fluid could get into the mouth. The virus could then get into the blood if you have bleeding gums or tiny sores or ulcers somewhere in the mouth. But infection from oral sex alone seems to be very rare, and there are things you can do to protect yourself.
Anal sex
If a couple have anal intercourse the risk of infection is greater than with vaginal intercourse. The lining of the anus is more delicate than the lining of the vagina, so it's more likely to be damaged during intercourse, and any contact with blood during sex increases the risk of infection.
Injecting drugs
There is a good likelihood of becoming infected with HIV if you share injecting equipment with someone who has the virus. The virus can be passed by sharing needles, syringes, spoons, filters and water.
Blood transfusions
Some people have been infected through a transfusion of infected blood. These days, in most countries all the blood used for transfusions is now tested for HIV.
Blood products
Blood products, such as those used by people with Hemophilia, are now heat-treated to make them safe.
Mother to child transmission
An infected pregnant woman can pass the virus on to her unborn baby either before or during birth. HIV can also be passed on during breastfeeding.
If a woman knows that she is infected with HIV, there are drugs that she can take to greatly reduce the chances of her child becoming infected.
Infection in the health-care setting
Some health-care workers have become infected with HIV by being stuck with needles containing HIV-infected blood. A very few have become infected by HIV-infected blood getting into the health-care worker's bloodstream through an open cut or splashes into a mucous membrane (e.g. eyes or the inside of the nose).
Tattoos / Piercing
Anything which allows another person's body fluids to get inside your body is risky. If the equipment is not sterile, having a tattoo done could carry a very small risk.
HIV Related Opportunistic Infections
TB is the leading cause of death among HIV infected people; the World health
People with latent TB are increasingly becoming infected with HIV, and many more are developing active TB because HIV is weakening their immune system. People who are co-infected with both HIV and latent TB have an up to 800 times greater risk of developing active TB disease and becoming infectious compared to people not infected with HIV. TB is an HIV related opportunistic infection. A person that has both HIV and active TB has an AIDS-defining illness.
People with advanced HIV infection are vulnerable to a wide range of infections and malignancies that are called “Opportunistic infections”
Diseases Include:
Bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis, MAC, bacterial pneumonia and (blood poisoning)
Protozoal diseases such as PCP, toxoplasmosis, microsporidiosis, cryptosporidiosis, isopsoriasis and leishmaniasis. Fungal diseases such as candidiasis, cryptococcosis and penicilliosis Viral diseases such as those caused by cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex and herpes zoster virus. HIV-associated malignancies such as Kaposi's sarcoma, lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Source: World Health Organization http://www.who.int/hiv/epi-update2005_en.pdf
YOU CAN'T GET AIDS FROM. . .
Kissing
At the moment, scientific opinion is pretty clear that you cannot become infected with HIV through kissing. To become infected with HIV you must get a sufficient quantity of HIV into the bloodstream. Saliva does contain HIV, but the virus is only present in very small quantities and as such, cannot cause HIV infection. Unless both partners have large open sores in their mouths, or severely bleeding gums, there is no transmission risk from mouth-to-mouth kissing.
Sneezing, coughing, sharing glasses/cups, etc
HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host, except under very extreme laboratory conditions. HIV does not survive well in the open air, and this makes the possibility of this type of environmental transmission remote.
This means that HIV cannot be transmitted through spitting, sneezing, sharing glasses or musical instruments. You also can't be infected in swimming pools, showers or by sharing washing machines or toilet seats.
Insects
Studies conducted by many researchers have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through insects, even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large populations of insects such as mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks, despite considerable efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that HIV is not transmitted by insects. Also, HIV only lives for a short time and does not reproduce in an insect. So, even if the virus enters a mosquito or another sucking or biting insect, the insect does not become infected and therefore cannot transmit HIV to the next human it feeds on or bites.
Injecting with sterile needles
Drug use with sterile works will not transmit HIV either, as long as clean works are used every time - this means needle, syringe and spoon, water and filters. There are still many other risks associated with injecting drug use. And, if you are on drugs, even alcohol, this may cloud your judgment and make you more likely to become involved in risky sexual behavior - it's harder to make the effort to use a condom when you're off your head.
Protected sex
If an unbroken latex condom is used, there is no risk of HIV transmission. There are myths saying that 'some very small viruses can pass through latex' - this is not true.
Anal sex is not necessarily a risk if unbroken condoms are used and there is no blood-to-blood contact. You can't 'create' HIV by having anal sex.
For more information please visit
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm
www.http://globalhealth.org