To raise awareness of AIDS, the World Health Organization designated December 1 of each year as World AIDS Day in January 1988, calling on countries and international organizations around the world to organize related activities on this day to promote and popularize knowledge of AIDS prevention.
About 36.9 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV, 2.6 million of whom are children under the age of 15. In 2014, about 2 million people were newly infected with HIV worldwide. Approximately 34 million people have died from HIV or AIDS to date.
“AIDS” – I’m sure the word is not new to everyone. But I’m afraid most people are afraid to talk about it, but they don’t know much about it.
“Can I get infected with AIDS if I get stuck with a needle?”
“If you are infected with HIV, will AIDS definitely happen?”
“If you have high-risk sex, how to exclude HIV infection?”
Don’t worry, here are the answers to the 13 most important questions about AIDS
Is AIDS contagious?
HIV is not contagious from normal living contact, such as shaking hands, hugging, eating together, working together, lying down, coughing, public bathrooms, public baths, and mosquito bites. So normal care for HIV infected or AIDS patients will not be contagious either. This is because HIV is very fragile and can only survive in living cells in blood and body fluids, not in air, water or food. Leaving these blood and body fluids, these viruses will die quickly, and also like hepatitis B virus, it will be destroyed by proteases in the digestive tract once it enters the digestive tract.
What are the main ways of transmission of HIV?
Sexual transmission (anal sex is the greatest risk); blood transmission (blood contamination, sharing needles for drug use, etc.); mother-to-child transmission (mother-to-child transmission). HIV is present in the body fluids of infected people, including blood, semen, breast milk, vaginal and cervical secretions; although HIV is also present in tears and saliva, it is not infectious because of the low levels (no relevant cases reported).
How infectious is it when sexual intercourse occurs?
In the case of unprotected intercourse, the probability of anal sex for gay men is 0.5% to 3%. Heterosexual intercourse, male to female in about 0.1% to 0.2%; female to male about 0.03 to 0.1%.
Can I be infected with AIDS if I get stuck by a needle?
If a needle is actually used by a person with AIDS, the probability of being infected is 0.3%. However, the probability of needle sharing is even higher at 0.67%.
What is the incubation period (asymptomatic period) from infection to onset of disease?
If untreated, it is usually 1 to 10 years, with an average of 7 to 8 years. Despite the absence of symptoms, it is infectious.
Is it certain that I will get AIDS if I am infected with HIV?
If the infection is treated early the incubation period can be significantly extended without even developing overt AIDS.
What are the early symptoms of HIV infection?
50% to 70% of infected people develop flu-like symptoms after 14 days, including fever, sore throat, headache, muscle and joint pain and discomfort, and can have a rash, often with swollen lymph nodes throughout the body. These symptoms can subside in a few days, mostly within 1 month, but a few in 2-3 months. HIV enters the body in about 5 days and the viral component can be detected in the peripheral blood. HIV RNA and P24 antigen can be detected in the blood during this period, but antibodies appear only after several weeks of infection.
How long does it take to confirm HIV infection by blood test?
The time between infection and a positive blood test for HIV antibodies is called the “window period”, which is 2 to 12 weeks, usually 4 to 6 weeks.
How can I rule out my HIV infection if I have had high-risk sex?
The “window period” varies from person to person and is generally 2 to 12 weeks. The initial test can be done 2 to 4 weeks after high-risk sex, and if the result is negative after 4 weeks, the infection rate can be ruled out at 98%; if the result is negative after 8 weeks, the infection rate can be ruled out at 99.99%; only about 1 in 10,000 people have a window period of 8 weeks to 3 months. In order to completely rule out the possibility of infection, it is best to do a final re-test after 3 months, and a negative result can be completely ruled out.
What is “negative for AIDS”?
Through investigation, the Ministry of Health has confirmed that the so-called negative AIDS is an AIDS phobia and that there is no unknown virus infection. AIDS phobia is commonly known as Islamophobia, and they are skeptical of negative results, thinking that the test is inaccurate or that the available reagents cannot detect their own virus, but in fact there is no unknown virus, so there is no need to panic.
Will HIV testing in hospitals disclose privacy?
Hospitals or other testing facilities keep the personal information of the test subjects strictly confidential. After the diagnosis of HIV is confirmed, only the person himself/herself will be informed, and the workplace will not be notified, nor will any mandatory measures be taken.
Can women with HIV have children?
The mother-to-child transmission rate is high, about 30% to 50%, so you should be cautious about having children; if you have children, you should take mother-to-child blocking treatment, which can reduce the transmission rate to less than 5%. Although mother-to-child transmission is possible, 1,200 children worldwide are infected with HIV every day, and 800 children die from HIV/AIDS every day worldwide.
How to prevent HIV?
First of all, be clean, avoid high-risk sex, use condoms (if you cannot guarantee that you are having absolute one-on-one sex with each other and both are healthy, you should use condoms), avoid sharing needles (drug use), use less blood products, etc. Both preventive and therapeutic vaccines have not yet been developed.