I am a little late in the day with this post but it is never to late to give information about getting tested for HIV.
Nothing is more important then knowing one's HIV status. Getting tested is the key to knowing such an important factor as this. Rapid HIV tests have become more advanced and less invasive and are able to provide accurate HIV test results in as little as 60 seconds! Wow that is quick! June 27th is National HIV testing day. Don't put it off get testing.
Nearly 1.2 million people are living with HIV and nearly one in eight are unaware they are infected in the United States alone. The estimates are, about 1,000 people in Wisconsin are unaware of their HIV infection.
How can you know your status? I'm glad you asked. GET TESTED! If you are HIV-positive, you can immediately start being treated. This can improve your health, prolong your life, and greatly lower your chance to spread HIV to other. The testing is recommended for people at risk from ages 15-65 years.
Don't know what HIV infection is? Well please do keep reading!
According to Arcw HIV infection is a communicable disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which damages the body's immune system, the system that fights infections. Without the immune system's protection, the body is defenseless against serious and potentially life-threatening diseases which can lead to the development of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the later stage of HIV infection. However, not everyone who has HIV progresses to AIDS. With proper treatment, you can keep the lever of HIV virus in your body low. It involves taking a combination of HIV medicines every day. These HIV medicines can control the virus so that you can live a longer, healthier life and reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others. Today, a person who is diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can have a nearly normal life expectancy.
Be well educated on how you can and cannot contract HIV.
HIV is not spread easily. Only certain body fluids from a person who has HIV can transmit HIV:
- Blood
- Semen (cum)
- Pre-seminal fluid (pre-cum)
- Rectal fluids
- Vaginal fluids
- Breast milk
These body fluids must come into contact with a mucous membrane or damaged tissue or be directly injected into your bloodstream (by a needle or syringe) for transmission to occur. Mucous membranes are found inside the rectum, vagina, penis, and mouth.
HIV IS NOT SPREAD BY…
HIV does not survive long outside the human body (such as on surfaces) and it cannot reproduce outside a human host. It is not spread by:
- Air or water
- Mosquitoes, ticks or other insects
- Saliva, tears, or sweat that is not mixed with the blood of an HIV-positive person
- Shaking hands, hugging, sharing toilets, sharing dishes/drinking glasses, or closed-mouth or “social” kissing with someone who is HIV-positive
- Drinking fountains
- Other sexual activities that don’t involve the exchange of body fluids (for example, touching).
Ways you can transmit HIV...
In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by:
- Having anal or vaginal sex with someone who has HIV without using a condom or taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV.
- Anal sex is the highest-risk sexual behavior. For the HIV-negative partner, receptive anal sex (“bottoming”) is riskier than insertive anal sex (“topping”).
- Vaginal sex is the second highest-risk sexual behavior.
- Sharing needles or syringes, rinse water, or other equipment (“works”) used to prepare injection drugs with someone who has HIV. HIV can live in a used needle up to 42 days depending on temperature and other factors.
Less commonly, HIV may be spread:
- From mother to child during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. Although the risk can be high if a mother is living with HIV and not taking medicine, recommendations to test all pregnant women for HIV and start HIV treatment immediately have lowered the number of babies who are born with HIV.
- By being stuck with an HIV-contaminated needle or other sharp object. This is a risk mainly for health care workers.
In extremely rare cases, HIV has been transmitted by:
- Oral sex—putting the mouth on the penis (fellatio), vagina (cunnilingus), or anus (rimming). In general, there is little to no risk of getting HIV from oral sex. But transmission of HIV, though extremely rare, is theoretically possible if an HIV-positive man ejaculates in his partner’s mouth during oral sex. To learn more about how to lower your risk, see CDC’s Oral Sex and HIV Risk.
- Receiving blood transfusions, blood products, or organ/tissue transplants that are contaminated with HIV. This was more common in the early years of HIV, but now the risk is extremely small because of rigorous testing of the U.S.blood supply and donated organs and tissues.
- Eating food that has been pre-chewed by an HIV-infected person. The contamination occurs when infected blood from a caregiver’s mouth mixes with food while chewing. The only known cases are among infants.
- Being bitten by a person with HIV. Each of the very small number of documented cases has involved severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood. There is no risk of transmission if the skin is not broken.
- Contact between broken skin, wounds, or mucous membranes and HIV-infected blood or blood-contaminated body fluids.
- Deep, open-mouth kissing if the person with HIV has sores or bleeding gums and blood from the HIV-positive partner gets into the bloodstream of the HIV-negative partner. HIV is not spread through saliva.
Keep yourself well informed and get tested!!!!
Signing out...
Dr. Destiny Ashland
Big Sister On Point
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