What are AIDS and HIV?

AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome to attach a condition 1st Reported in the United States in 1981, which is now a major global epidemic.

AIDS is HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). By killing or damaging cells of the body's immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection.

How is the spread of HIV?

There are different ways that HIV can be passed from person to person, including:

* Having unprotected sex with someone who is infected
* With needles or syringes used by the people who are infected
* Receiving infected blood products or organs transplanted (Since 1985, the United States actively testing all blood donations for HIV; Therefore, the risk of HIV in this way in the United States is now extremely low.)
* Transmission from mother to child "€" An infected mother can the virus to their developing fetus during pregnancy, during birth or through breastfeeding.

If you have a sexually transmitted disease may be at higher risk of infection with HIV during sex with an HIV-infected partner.

There is no evidence that HIV is spread through contact with saliva or by casual contact work, such as shaking hands or hugging or the distribution of food dishes, bedding and towels, swimming pools, telephone or toilet seats. HIV is not from biting insects such as mosquitoes or bugs.

What is it for the treatment of HIV / AIDS?

Although AIDS, when for the first time there were only a few treatments, researchers have developed drugs that can help fight both HIV and related infections and cancers associated with. Advances in treatment have improved survival and decreased progression of HIV disease in the developed countries like the United States, where antiretroviral drugs are available.

For more information, please treatment from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH. The NIH is currently conducting many clinical studies related to HIV / AIDS testing and treatment therapies. These studies are sponsored and co-sponsored by several institutions, including the NICHD.

The NICHD supports and conducts research related to HIV / AIDS in certain groups of people, including pregnant and non-pregnant women, infants and children, adolescents and young adults. The information below applies to the groups.

How does the fight against HIV / AIDS on women?

According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS), 19.2 million women with HIV / AIDS live in the whole world. In many countries, the rate of HIV infection among women is rising faster than in any other group.

Worldwide, more than 80% of HIV infections are from heterosexual sex (vaginal sexual intercourse); Women are especially at risk of HIV through this kind of contact. HIV is increasing dramatically the African American and Hispanic women.

Although most of the signs and symptoms of HIV infection are similar in men and women, some are specifically designed for women. For example:

* Vaginal yeast infections can be chronic, severe and difficult to treat, in the women with HIV infection than women who are not infected.
* Pelvic inflammatory disease, an infection of the female genital organs, including more frequent and severe in women with HIV infection.
* Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the cause of genital warts, often in HIV-infected women, and can cause lesions before cancer of the cervix or cancer of the cervix.

The NICHD, together with other institutions, supports studies to determine which aspects of HIV, especially for women and the best treatment options for these symptoms.

How does HIV affect pregnant women and children?

Women can HIV to their babies during pregnancy, during birth or through breastfeeding.

But there are effective ways to prevent the spread of mother to child transmission of HIV:

* Taking anti-HIV drugs during pregnancyâ € "either a drug called zidovudine, or AZT alone or in combination with other drugs called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)" € "a mother can significantly reduce the chances that their children get HIV infected.
* Delivering the child by caesarean section, before the mother € ™ s, uterine rupture membranes of course, reduces transmission, possibly during the birth. The use of antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy and delivery, combined with a Caesarean section among women with certain levels of HIV in their blood, the chance that the child will be infected to less than 2%.
* Avoidance of breastfeeding by an HIV-infected mother. HIV can affect babies via breast milk of mothers infected with the virus. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that in countries like the United States, where infant formula is safe and is often available and affordable, HIV-infected women their infants commercially available formula instead of breastfeeding.

About one quarter to one half of all untreated pregnant women infected with HIV in the infection to their babies. HIV infection of newborns is very rare in the United States, because women are tested for HIV during pregnancy and women with HIV infection receive antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy, caesarean section, if the supply of HIV in the blood are high, it is recommended, and not to breast-feed their infants and toddlers.

How does HIV affect children and adolescents?

It is estimated that approximately 10,000 children are living with HIV infection in the United States. In the United States, the number of children born with HIV infection has dropped dramatically from about 2,000 per year to less than 200 per year by the identification of HIV infection in pregnant women, and the use of anti-HIV drugs during the pregnancy, caesarean delivery, and the avoidance of breastfeeding.

Unlike the United States, the mother-to-child transmission in developing countries remains a major problem; About 700,000 children newly infected with HIV each year, as most women are not screened for HIV during pregnancy, combating HIV drugs are not available, and safe alternatives to breast-feed is not available.

Before 1985, when screening of the nation's blood supply for HIV started, some children and adults were infected by transfusions of blood or blood products contaminated with HIV, but it is now rare in the United States.

In contrast to the dramatic decline in mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection, the number of cases of HIV infection among adolescents and young adults continue to increase in the United States. Approximately one third to one half of new HIV infections in the United States are among teenagers and young adults.

Most HIV-infected youths and young adults are exposed to the virus through unprotected sex; Some teenagers and young adults are infected through injecting drug use. In addition, an increasing number of children who were infected as infants are now surviving until adolescence.