Houston - Living Longer With HIV Tests

HIV stands for the human immunodeficiency virus. It is one of a group of viruses known as retroviruses. HIV cannot live outside of the human body, so you cannot be infected from toilet seats, phones, or water fountains. The virus cannot be transmitted in the air through sneezing or coughing.

HIV/AIDS is now pandemic which means it has spread across whole continents and in this case the world. It is thought that at the moment there are 40million people worldwide, living with HIV, 70% of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV infects people of all ages — more than 40,000 in the United States every year. In the United States, the highest percentage of AIDS cases is in those between ages 24 and 44, the most sexually active age group. HIV stands for the human immunodeficiency virus. It is one of a group of viruses known as retroviruses.

Women and girls often have less information about HIV and fewer resources to take preventive measures. They face barriers to the negotiation of safer sex, including economic dependency and unequal power relations. Women are at high risk of infection and have few options for providing for their families. Children affected by HIV/AIDS, due to their own infection or parental illness or death, are less likely to receive an education, as they leave school to care for ailing parents and younger siblings.

HIV fusion inhibitors work by blocking HIV’s ability to infect healthy CD4+ cells. Integrase inhibitors work by blocking integrase, the enzyme that HIV uses to integrate genetic material of the virus into its target host cell. HIV-infected children frequently are slow to reach important milestones in motor skills and mental development such as crawling, walking and speaking. As the disease progresses, many children develop neurologic problems such as difficulty walking, poor school performance, seizures, and other symptoms of HIV encephalopathy. HIV/AIDS is always fatal and it?s necessary to understand how it works as much as possible to prevent one from getting the disease.

HIV can be transmitted through direct contact with the blood or body fluid of someone who is infected with the virus. That contact usually comes from sharing needles or by having unprotected sex with an infected person. HIV attaches to these CD4 cells, infects them, and uses them as a place to multiply. In doing so, the virus destroys the ability of the infected cells to do their job in the immune system. HIV has not gone away. Neither have the complex issues it raises.

HIV/AIDS education should begin early, even before children become sexually active. HIV/AIDS has become a major threat to this unique form of art, as prominent artists succumb to the epidemic. Master artists are prevented from passing on their knowledge, and younger artists are being lost. HIV/AIDS weakens a person’s ability to fight infections and cancer.

Testing positive for the HIV can bring a range of emotions, such as panic, fear, and anger. But many HIV-positive women find that after some time, they are able to manage their condition and live life to its fullest. Testing is the only way to tell.