Download
1 / 15
150 likes | 271 Views
HIV/Aids Around The World. By: Meghan Mullinix, Carolyn Vidal, Katie Schott, and Brendan Cutliff. What Is Aids/HIV?. HIV stands for ‘ Human Immunodeficiency Virus’. HIV is a virus that infects the cells that make up the human body It can be passed from one person to another
E N D
HIV/Aids Around The World By: Meghan Mullinix, Carolyn Vidal, Katie Schott, and Brendan Cutliff
What Is Aids/HIV? • HIV stands for ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus’. • HIV is a virus that infects the cells that make up the human body • It can be passed from one person to another • Someone can become infected with HIV through contact with bodily fluids, who has already been infected
Risk Factors A risk factor is something that increases your likelihood of getting a disease or condition. • The more risk factors you have, the greater your likelihood to contract HIV infection and develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) factors. Consider asking your doctor what you can do to reduce your risk. • Certain lifestyle factors greatly increase your risk of contracting HIV infection and developing AIDS. By avoiding behaviors that are associated with increasing your risk, you can greatly reduce your risk. • Receiving blood products, tissue or organ transplantation, increases your risk of HIV infection and AIDS. Even though blood products are now screened for HIV, there is still some degree of risk because tests cannot detect HIV immediately after transmission. • Sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) and vaginal infections caused by bacteria tend to increase the risk of HIV transmission during sex with an HIV-infected partner. • Examples of STDs include: • Syphilis • Genital herpes • Chlamydia • Gonorrhea
About HIV Testing • HIV tests show if someone is infected with the HIV infection or AIDS • There are several different tests that are used to determine if your are HIV positive • The commonly used tests look for antibodies to the virus in the blood, mouth or urine • If an initial test is negative the testing is then complete, • If positive, additional testing is necessary to make sure that it is not a “False positive”.
Why Get Tested… • Getting tested for HIV is a smart thing to do if sexually active or involved in high risk activities • Currently there is no cure for HIV/Aids, but there are medications that have proven very effective in keeping HIV-positive people alive longer and healthier • Medicines like Abacavir (Ziagen, ABC), Didanosine (Videx, dideoxyinosine, ddI), Emtricitabine (Emtriva, FTC) Lamivudine (Epivir, 3TC), Stavudine (Zerit, d4T),Tenofovir (Viread, TDF) Zalcitabine (Hivid, ddC) Zidovudine (Retrovir, ZDV or AZT) • These medicines interrupt the virus from duplicating, which slows the spread of HIV through the body.
What Happens If I’m HIV Positive? • You might not know if you get infected by HIV. Some people get fever, headache, sore muscles and joints, stomach ache, or a skin rash for one or two weeks. Most people think it’s just the flu. Some people have no symptoms at all. • The virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks, or maybe even months before your immune system responds. During this time, you won’t test positive for HIV, but you can infect other people. • When your immune system responds, it starts to make antibodies. When this happens, you will test positive for HIV. • After the first flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer. But during this time, HIV is damaging your immune system.
AIDS in Pregnancy • Pregnancy: If you think you’re pregnant and HIV positive, you should contact your doctor immediately to discuss your future and options. If you are pregnant with HIV you can take medications to reduce the baby’s risk of becoming positive as well. • Since becoming more aware, the United States has had a 95% reduction of prenatal HIV cases.
The primary treatment for HIV/AIDs is antiretroviral drugs. Since there is no known cure for this disease, these drugs keep a person alive. The goal of antiretroviral treatment is to keep the amount of HIV in the body at a low level. This stops any weakening of the immune system and allows it to recover from any damage that HIV might have caused already. You can also use another type of treatment called combination therapy which is combing two or more antiretroviral drugs at the same time. Using three of more is called Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) There are more than 20 antiretroviral drugs but are not licensed or available. The reason people take more than one drug at a time is because our body easily becomes resistant to a drug and its effects would stop working. In the beginning of treatment, a person in on what’s called first line therapy. If HIV eventually becomes resistant to the combination then they will switch to another drug or combination which is called second line therapy. Treatment
Prevention • Abstinence: Don’t have sex and if you do make sure it’s safe. • Safe Sex: Use safe sex materials such as male and female condoms and antiseptic. • Tattoos and Piercing: When getting tattoos or piercings make sure all the needles are sterilized and it is by a professional. • Needle Exchange: Always use clean, unused needles and do not share other IV drug paraphernalia such as cookers, filters, or water glasses.
AIDS Walk San Francisco • Since 1987, AIDS Walk San Francisco has raised nearly $65 million for HIV programs and services in the Bay Area. In 2007, 25,000 participants raised a record sum of $4.6 million for the San Francisco AIDS foundation and 42 Bay Area HIV/AIDS organizations. • For more information, please visit: • www.aidswalk.net/sanfran
HIV/AIDS in Africa • 22.5 million people are currently living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of these people, (61%), are women. In the year of 2007 alone, 1.9 million people were affected by the HIV virus and more than 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. • Since the expansion of treatment, awareness, and care efforts hasn’t spread through the entire continent, the illness rate and death toll will keep rising. • This means that the impact of the AIDS epidemic will be felt more heavily in the next 10 years. • Its social and economic consequences are already widely felt, not only in the health section but also in education, industry, agriculture, transport, human resources and the economy in general. • The countries most heavily affected are Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland where the HIV prevalence rate is between 23-26% in adults.
