Education, about AIDs and HIV

Education, about AIDs and HIV, is beginning to limit the spread of these diseases. Except, in rare cases of medical transmission, the virus is transmitted between two individuals who engage in a high risk behavior. Body fluids, blood or semen, need to be exchanged between an infected individual and another person for the infection to spread. Transmission requires that people expose their intimate friend(s) to a deadly risk generally through sexual activity or sharing of needles. The most common methods of transmission, in the United States, are unprotected anal sex between homosexual men and sharing needles.

AIDs is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome. It is caused by a virus. This virus is know as HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The virus can take years to evolve into a case of AIDs. Hallmarks of AIDs are pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, extrapulmonary cryptococcosis, and cytomegalovirus infection. Any person with HIV or AIDs can infect another person with the virus. As the disease progresses, infected people become more infectious.

To protect yourself from acquiring the virus, a person should refrain from engaging in high risk behaviors. By remaining a virgin until marriage and marrying a virgin, who was not exposed prenatally, and not using intravenous drugs, a person is almost guaranteed not to become infected.