What is it?

AIDS - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome - was first reported in the United States in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide epidemic. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By killing or damaging cells of the body's immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. People diagnosed with AIDS may get life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections, which are caused by microbes such as viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick.

How do you get it?

HIV is spread most commonly by having unprotected sex with an infected partner. The virus can enter the body through the lining of the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or mouth during sex.

HIV also is spread through contact with infected blood. Before donated blood was screened for evidence of HIV infection and before heat-treating techniques to destroy HIV in blood products were introduced, HIV was transmitted through transfusions of contaminated blood or blood components. Today, because of blood screening and heat treatment, the risk of getting HIV from such transfusions is extremely small.

HIV frequently is spread among injection drug users by the sharing of needles or syringes contaminated with very small quantities of blood from someone infected with the virus. It is rare, however, for a patient to give HIV to a health care worker or vice-versa by accidental sticks with contaminated needles or other medical instruments.

Women can transmit HIV to their babies during pregnancy or birth. Approximately one-quarter to one-third of all untreated pregnant women infected with HIV will pass the infection to their babies. HIV also can be spread to babies through the breast milk of mothers infected with the virus. If the mother takes the drug AZT during pregnancy, she can reduce significantly the chances that her baby will get be infected with HIV. If health care providers treat mothers with AZT and deliver their babies by cesarean section, the chances of the baby being infected can be reduced to a rate of 1 percent.

HIV can infect anyone who practices risky behaviors such as sharing drug needles or syringes having sexual contact with an infected person without using a condom having sexual contact with someone whose HIV status is unknown

What are the symptoms of HIV infection?

Many people do not have any symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have a flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to the virus. This illness may include fever, headache, tiredness, and enlarged lymph nodes (glands of the immune system easily felt in the neck and groin). These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection. During this period, people are very infectious, and HIV is present in large quantities in genital fluids.

More persistent or severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. This period of "asymptomatic" infection is highly individual. Some people may begin to have symptoms within a few months, while others may be symptom-free for more than 10 years.

As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications start to take over. For many people, their first sign of infection is large lymph nodes or "swollen glands" that may be enlarged for more than three months. Other symptoms often experienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include lack of energy weight loss frequent fevers and sweats persistent or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal) persistent skin rashes or flaky skin pelvic inflammatory disease in women that does not respond to treatment

How do you Treat HIV/AIDS?

More recently, FDA has approved a second class of drugs for treating HIV infection. These drugs, called protease inhibitors, interrupt virus replication at a later step in its life cycle. They include

• ritonavir (Norvir)

• saquinivir (Invirase)

• indinavir (Crixivan)

• amprenivir (Agenerase)

• nelfinavir (Viracept)

• lopinavir (Kaletra)

Because HIV can become resistant to any of these drugs, health care providers must use a combination treatment to effectively suppress the virus. However, there is no real cure for the virus currently.

What can I do to avoid being infected with HIV/AIDS?

Because no vaccine for HIV is available, the only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid behaviors that put a person at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex.

If you are involved sexually... You need to know the risks... Beware...

Your partner may not know he/she has an STD - 80% infected do not know their condition.

Your partner may not tell you the truth if he/she has been sexually active in the past.

STDs are not always prevented with condom use:

• some STDs transmit skin to skin;

• condoms have a 17% failure rate; that is 1 in 6.

• You can have an STD and have no symptoms for weeks, months, possibly years. STDs are contagious even though no symptoms exist.

• Teens are much more susceptible to STD damage because they have a lower level of antibodies than adults.

• It is extremely important to see a doctor for a checkup if you -- or your partner -- have had a sexual experience outside of marriage even though no symptoms exist.