HIV/AIDS Moderated by Dana Draina, RN, BSN; Family Nurse Practitioner Student

What Causes AIDS?

AIDS is caused by the virus HIV. This virus that will destroy the body’s technique to fight infection and certain cancers. If the virus enters your blood, you may become infected. People with HIV can have many health problems because the body’s immune system stops working. These can include severe weight loss, pneumonia, cancer, and damage to the nervous system. These illnesses could occur within a year or two or may take as long as 10 or more years to appear. The only way to tell if you have caught the virus is to get a special blood test.

How do people get HIV?

The virus is spread by three main ways:

· Having sex with a person infected with HIV

· Sharing a needle or syringe with a person infected with HIV

· Mothers infecting their babies in the womb, at birth or during breast feeding

· Years ago, people got the virus from receiving infected blood

HIV, Sex and Drugs

HIV may be in a person’s blood, semen, or vaginal fluid. It is thought that the virus can enter the blood through tiny cuts or sores in the vagina or penis. Sometimes these cuts may be so small you don’t know they are there. Many people with HIV have no symptoms. So, it is hard to know who may have the virus.

Anal sex with a person who has the virus is one of the ways it has been most often spread. Whether you are male or female, anal sex with an infected person is not advised.

HIV through oral sex may be likely. During oral sex, the person who receives semen, blood, or vaginal fluids is at a higher risk.

The more sex partners you have, the higher your chances are of catching it.

People can get HIV by sharing needles or other drug shooting supplies with someone who has HIV. Even though people stopped using dirty needles years ago, they may still be at a risk for HIV and can pass it through unprotected sex now.

How is HIV Treated?

Currently there is no way to get rid of the virus once a person is infected. But, new medicines can slow the damage that HIV causes to the immune system. Also, health care providers are getting better at treating the illnesses that are caused by HIV infection. Many people now consider the HIV infection a manageable chronic illness.

Since, HIV is a retrovirus; the drugs used to treat it are called antiretroviral medicines. The current recommended treatment for HIV is a combination of three or more medicines. This standard of medicines is called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). These strong medicines control the virus and slow the rise of HIV infection. But, they do not cure it. You need to take these medicines exactly as your health care provider prescribes. How many pills you will need to take and how often you will take them depend on which medicines your doctor chooses for you. Each HAART standard is tailored to each individual patient.
Your health care provider may also prescribe other medicines for you, hinging on your CD4 cell count. Always discuss any side effects with your health care provider. Never change the way you are taking any of the medicines without first talking with your health care provider. If you don’t take your medicines the right way, they may not work as well as they should be.

Resources:

Pennsylvania Department of Health Northeast District Office

665 Carey Avenue, Suite 5

Wilkes-Barre, PA 18706-5485

HIV Prevention Nurse Consultant 570-826-2062

Provides resources, education, direction for personal, and community needs.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Environmental Health

1600 Clifton Road

Atlanta, GA 30333
1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636) or 404-639-3311
www.cdc.gov/hiv

Nationwide test site referrals, counseling, literature (upon request), clinical trials information referrals, and a wide scope of other HIV/AIDS/STD/TB-related resource information.

Wyoming Valley AIDS Council

183 Market Street, Suite 102

Kingston, PA 18704

(570)823-5808

www.XceedAmerica.org

Provides support groups for people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

Pennsylvania Department of Public Works

AIDS-Specific Programs Information

Case Management Unit

P.O. Box 8021

Harrisburg, PA 17105-8021

1-800-922-9384

www.dpw.state.pa.us/omap

Provides special pharmaceutical benefits program (SPBP) which pays for certain drugs for persons with HIV/AIDS with certain eligibility requirements.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

http://sis/nlm.nih.gov/hiv.html/

Offering information on HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and research.