How Do You Get Aids?

You don't actually "get" AIDS. You might get infected with HIV, and later you might develop AIDS.

You can get infected with HIV from anyone who's infected, even if they don't look sick, and even if they haven't tested HIV-positive yet. The blood, vaginal fluid, semen, and breast milk of people infected with HIV has enough of the virus in it to infect other people. Most people get the HIV virus by:

• Having sex with an infected person.

• Sharing a needle (shooting drugs) with someone who's infected

• Being born when the mother is infected, or drinking the breast milk of an infected woman.

Getting a transfusion of infected blood used to be a way people got AIDS, but now the blood supply is screened very carefully and the risk is extremely low.

There are no documented cases of HIV being transmitted by tears or saliva, but it is possible to be infected with HIV through oral sex or in rare cases through deep kissing, especially if you have open sores in your mouth or bleeding gums.

In the United States, there are about 800,000 to 900,000 people who are HIV-positive. Over 300,000 people are living with AIDS. Each year, there are about 40,000 new infections. In the mid-1990s, AIDS was a leading cause of death. However, newer treatments have cut the AIDS death rate significantly.

What Happens If You Are HIV Positive?

You might not know if HIV infects you. Some people get fever, headache, sore muscles and joints, stomach ache, swollen lymph glands, or a skin rash for one or two weeks. Most people think it's the flu. Some people have no symptoms.

The virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks or even months before your immune system responds. During this time, you won't test positive for HIV, but you can infect other people.

When your immune system responds, it starts to make antibodies. When this happens, you will test positive for HIV.

After the first flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer. But during this time, HIV is damaging your immune system.

One way to measure the damage to your immune system is to count your CD4+ cells you have. These cells, also called "T-helper" cells, are an important part of the immune system. Healthy people have between 500 and 1,500 CD4+cells in milliliter of blood.

Without treatment, your CD4+ cell will most likely go down. You might start having signs of HIV disease like fevers, night sweats, diarrhea, or swollen lymph nodes. If you have HIV disease, these problems will last more than a few days, and probably continue for several weeks.

How Do I Know If You Have Aids?

HIV disease becomes AIDS when your immune system is seriously damaged. If you have less than 200 CD4+ cells or if your CD4+ percentage is less than 14%, you have AIDS. If you get an opportunistic infection, you have AIDS. The most common ones are:

• PCP (Pneumocystis pneumonia), a lung infection;

• KS (Kaposi's sarcoma), a skin cancer;

• CMV (Cytomegalovirus), an infection that usually affects the eyes; and

• Candida, a fungal infection that can cause thrush (a white film in your mouth) or infections in your throat or vagina.

AIDS-related diseases also include serious weight loss, brain tumors, and other health problems. Without treatment, these opportunistic infections can kill you.

AIDS is different in every infected person. Some people die soon after getting infected, while others live fairly normal lives for many years, even after they "officially" have AIDS. A few HIV-positive people stay healthy for many years even without taking anti-HIV medications.

Is There A Cure For Aids?

There is no cure for AIDS. There are drugs that can slow down the HIV virus, and slow down the damage to your immune system. But there is no way to get all the HIV out of your body.

There are other drugs that you can take to prevent or to treat opportunistic infections (OIs). In most cases, these drugs work very well. The newer, stronger anti-HIV drugs have also helped reduce the rates of most OIs. A few OIs, however, are still very difficult to treat.