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Hanif
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Health
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539 days ago
Rosie's Answer
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was first detected in Canada more than 25 years ago. Since then, thousands of Canadians continue to become infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) every year.
HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, resulting in a chronic, progressive illness that leaves people vulnerable to infections. When the body can no longer fight infection, the disease has progressed to become AIDS.
AIDS is a deadly disease and continues to be a global health issue. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, in 2008, there were an estimated 2 million deaths worldwide due to AIDS. There is no cure for AIDS and currently no vaccine to prevent the HIV infection.
Background
Over a period of years, HIV can weaken the body's immune system to the point where it no longer can fight usually harmless bacterial and viral infections, parasites, fungi, and cancers. These diseases are called "opportunistic infections", and their appearance for a person living with HIV may lead to the onset of AIDS, which is the last stage of the HIV infection. Advanced opportunistic infections can lead to death.
HIV Infection
HIV is not transmitted through air, food, or water or through everyday social contact, such as shaking hands, sneezing, touching, and swimming. For a person to become infected with HIV, the virus must enter the bloodstream. As such, there are a limited number of ways that a person can transmit or become infected by HIV.
The following activities can place a person at high-risk for HIV infection:
engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse (anal or vaginal);
sharing sex toys;
sharing needles or equipment for injecting drugs or steroids; and
mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy, delivery, and breast-feeding.
HIV cannot be transmitted in the following ways:
shaking hands, hugging;
coughing, sneezing;
giving blood;
using swimming pools, toilet seats;
sharing eating utensils, water fountains;
mosquito and other insect bites;
animal bites.
The following activities pose a low risk for contracting the HIV infection, but they still carry a risk. They pose a high risk when one of the partners has a pre-existing infection that resulted from a previous sexual experience or contact with infected blood.
Unprotected oral sex poses a lower risk for HIV transmission, but a higher risk for causing other sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, genital warts (HPV), and syphilis.
Kissing, in almost all circumstances, has no risk of HIV transmission. However, kissing with the exchange of blood (when there are bleeding cuts, open sores, or ulcers present in the mouth) can still carry a low risk for HIV transmission.
Reusing or sharing needles for tattooing, skin piercing, electrolysis, or acupuncture carry a low risk for HIV transmission and a high risk for the transmission of other blood-borne infections, such as INK hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
Exposure to blood and bodily fluids in an occupational setting (for example, in an emergency response or a medical environment) carries a low risk if infection-control precautions are followed. However, the transmission risk is higher in an occupational setting if precautions are not followed, or if the skin is punctured while being exposed to bodily fluids.
Even without treatment, it can take many years for a person infected with HIV to develop noticeable symptoms. That is why people can be unaware that they are infected with HIV. The Agency estimates that, at the end of 2008, 26% of the people in Canada who were living with HIV did not know they were infected. If people have HIV and do not know it, they may unknowingly infect others by not taking proper precautions during sex, or while injecting drugs or steroids. The only way to confirm if you are infected is through a blood test.
Minimizing Your Risk
HIV is not an easy virus to transmit. It can only be passed from body to body through blood, semen, pre-ejaculate (pre-semen), vaginal fluids, and breast milk.
There are several steps a person can take to reduce the risk of HIV infection.
1. If you decide to have sex, discuss HIV and other sexually transmitted infections with your sexual partner, and only have sex with a partner who agrees to have safe sex.
To practise safer sex:
Use a latex or polyurethane condom or a female condom consistently and correctly whenever you have anal or vaginal sex;
Use a latex or polyurethane condom or a dental dam consistently and correctly every time you have oral sex;
Use only water-based lubricants with latex condoms, as oil-based lubricants like Vaseline, can weaken a latex condom and cause it to break;
Don't share sex toys without properly cleaning them first; and
Refrain from kissing when there is the possibility of blood exchange via bleeding cuts, open sores, or ulcers in the mouth.
2. If you are injecting drugs or steroids, practise safer injection:
Never share needles or injection equipment; and
Always use a new needle and new injection equipment (cookers, spoons, water, etc.) every time you inject.
3. If you are pregnant and concerned about HIV, talk to your doctor about being tested. Early treatment with medication can prevent the transmission of HIV from a mother to her baby.
4. If you are getting a tattoo, body piercing, electrolysis, or acupuncture, ensure these activities are only carried out by professionals who follow universal infection-control precautions similar to those used in hospitals (see Need More Info below for information on universal infection-control precautions). The law requires that all needles used in these procedures are used only once and are disposed of after use.
5. If you are exposed to bodily fluids in an occupational setting, follow applicable health and safety guidelines and universal infection-control precautions (see Need More Info below for information on universal infection-control precautions). If accidental exposure to these fluids occurs through a needle-stick or a sharp-object injury or through a skin puncture, follow organizational guidelines or, in the absence of guidelines, let the wound bleed freely and go to a hospital emergency room as soon as possible.
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