AIDS / HIV

What goes wrong

The HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) gradually attacks your immune system, so that you have no way to defend yourself from diseases and infections.

When they first get infected, people often think they have the flu. Then they feel better, and a few people carry on for years not feeling ill. But all the time HIV is eating away at the CD4+ cells which help you fight disease.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is when the HIV virus really kicks in and you start losing weight, getting fevers, lung and eye infections and skin cancer.

It’s caught by

Having vaginal or anal sex (including on rare occasions oral sex) or sharing needles with someone who’s got the HIV virus. In the past it was also caused by blood transfusions using HIV-contaminated blood (but now ALL blood for transfusion is checked and this way of catching it is not now a problem). Babies can get it direct from their mother's blood when they are in the womb or after they are born from their mother’s milk if the mother is infected.

It is not caught by

Kissing, hugging, touching, lavatory seats, door knobs, drinking glasses, sharing toothbrushes, mosquitoes or swimming pools.

How not to get it

Use a condom. Better still, stick to one partner. Don’t sleep with anyone who might have a dodgy sex history. (Dodgy = sex with drug addicts, prostitutes, or anyone who’s put themselves at risk, gay or straight.)

Remember that the test for HIV doesn’t become positive for 3 or 4 months after someone gets infected. And even if you don’t feel ill or are having treatment, YOU ARE STILL INFECTIOUS to other people, if you have sex with them or share needles.

What to do if you have it

There is no cure. A hefty cocktail of new drugs can help you feel better and slow the progress of the disease down quite a bit, but no one’s figured out how to get the virus out of your body yet.