The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS is transmitted through body fluids in particular blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk.

Transmission of HIV takes place in four ways:
1. Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner (the most common);
2. sharing needles when injecting or other use of contaminated injection or other skin- piercing equipment;
3. blood and blood products through, for example, infected transfusions and organ or tissue transplants,
4. transmission from infected mother to child in the womb or at birth and breastfeeding.

HIV is not transmitted by casual physical contact, coughing, sneezing and kissing, by sharing toilet and washing facilities, by using eating utensils or consuming food and beverages handled by someone who has HIV; it is not spread by mosquitoes or other insect bites.

HIV weakens the human body's immune system, making it difficult to fight infection. A person may live for ten years or more after infection, much of this time without symptoms or sickness, although they can still transmit the infection to others.

Early symptoms of AIDS include:
Chronic fatigue, diarrhoea, fever, mental changes such as memory loss, weight loss, persistent cough, severe recurrent skin rashes, herpes and mouth infections, and swelling of the lymph nodes.

Opportunistic diseases such as cancers, meningitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis may also take advantage of the body's weakened immune system.

There is no cure for AIDS. Although periods of illness may be interspersed with periods of remission, AIDS is almost always fatal. Research is currently under way into vaccines, but none is viable as yet. Antiretroviral drugs are available that slow the progression of the disease and prolong life; at present these are very expensive and consequently unavailable to most people with HIV in the developing world, but the situation is changing rapidly.

HIV is a fragile virus, which can only survive in a limited range of conditions. It can only enter the body through naturally moist places and cannot penetrate unbroken skin. Prevention therefore involves ensuring that there is a barrier to the virus, for example condoms, and that skin-piercing equipment is not contaminated.
(Source: www.worldaidsday.org)

Editor: Catherine