FAQs on HIV - Current AIDS Information Revisited

 

What is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS): This sexually transmitted disease is both chronic and life threatening. The disease attacks the immunodeficiency virus (HIV). When this attack occurs, you will have no ability to fight any colds or infections. In addition, you have no immune system. The term AIDS is commonly used in reference to a person experiencing the later stages of the HIV infection. This infection is not limited to sexual partners. Those who share drug needles are at risk. Unborn children are also at risk if their mother has the disease. It can be passed to the baby through the umbilical cord as well as breast milk.

 

It is not so easy to pinpoint the symptoms of either HIV or AIDS as they vary depending on the state of the disease. You may not experience any symptoms. Then again, you may feel like you came down with a bad case of the flu approximately two to six weeks from the time of infection. It should be obvious by the symptoms that this disease is not easily diagnosed because most people do not enter into a sexual relationship thinking they are going to contract HIV/AIDS. That is not the first thought on their mind when they experience “a cold” and will very rarely connect that “cold” with a sexual encounter.

 

One of the difficulties with this disease is that even if you do not experience symptoms you may be infected and you can still infect those that you have been in a sexual relationship. The HIV virus will begin attacking your immune system and will not stop. Eventually you will experience the following symptoms:

·                    Swollen lymph nodes

·                    Diarrhea

·                    Weight loss

·                    Fever, coughing, and shortness of breath

 

When your immune system has been severely compromised, you will be susceptible to an opportunistic infection and experience:

·                    Night sweats

·                    Chills/fever that is increased for several weeks in a row

·                    Dry cough and shortness of breath

·                    Chronic diarrhea

·                    Lesions on your tongue or mouth

·                    Headaches

·                    Distorted vision

·                    Weight loss

·                    Unexplained fatigue

·                    Swelling of the lymph nodes

·                    Cancers run rampant when you are infected with HIV

 

Ways in which you can become infected with HIV include:

·                    Sexual intercourse either vaginally or anally with an infected partner

If you share sexual devices that have not been cleaned of covered with