What are HIV and AIDS?

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This virus attacks the human immune system, the body's defence against disease.

A person with HIV may feel completely well and have no symptoms. However over a long period of time the virus may damage the immune system. As a result the body may not be able to fight off certain rare illnesses and cancers. When this happens the person is said to have AIDS.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The 'syndrome' is a collection of rare illnesses which people with HIV can get if their immune system is weakened by the virus.





How is HIV passed on?

HIV is not a very infectious virus. It cannot pass through unbroken skin, or through the air like cold germs. It cannot be passed on through ordinary social contact. People with HIV and AIDS live and work with uninfected people without putting them at any risk.

There are three main ways in which HIV can pass from someone who has HIV to an uninfected person:

• through having sexual intercourse (sex where the penis enters the vagina or anus), without using a condom or Femidom (the female condom)
• through sharing drug injecting equipment
• from a mother to her baby during pregnancy or birth, or through breastfeeding.

It is very uncommon for HIV to be passed on in any other way. However a small number of people have been infected from giving oral sex to a man with HIV (sucking his penis), and there have been a few cases of health care workers (doctors, nurses etc) being infected through accidents with needles while caring for patients with HIV.

In the past, people who were given blood transfusions, blood factor treatments (for haemophilia) or organ transplants sometimes became infected because the donor had HIV. All blood and organ donations in the UK are now screened to prevent this happening, though it is still a risk in some parts of the world.