HIV and Aids

AIDS is short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. HIV is short for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, also known as the AIDS virus. A person infected with HIV, is called HIV seropositive. If you are HIV seropositive, you have the HIV virus and your immune system is not functioning well anymore. Normally speaking your immune system stops infections.

Anyone, i.e. every man, woman and child can contract the HIV virus. HIV is a sexually transmitted disorder which can also be transmitted through blood, from mother to daughter and through breastfeeding. You CANNOT contract the virus through saliva, perspiration, tears, urine or faeces, unless these visibly contain blood.

By practising safe sex (i.e. by using a condom) you cannot transmit the virus. If a mother is HIV positive, the virus can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy or delivery. After delivery a mother can transmit the virus through breastfeeding. Since January 2006 all pregnant women in The Netherlands are tested for HIV.

By treating the mother with medication during her pregnancy, delivering the baby through a caesarean and by not breastfeeding the baby the risk of transmitting the virus can be reduced to 2%.

Once you are infected with the HIV virus there is no getting rid of it. There are, however, HIV inhibitors which prevent or postpone the AIDS disease.

You can find out whether or not you are infected with the virus by having your blood tested.

In South Africa approximately 18 % of the population is HIV positive. Throughout the World about 33 milion people are infected with HIV and each year this number increases by 2.5 million people. Every 15 seconds someone dies of AIDS. Every 12 seconds someone is infected with HIV. Only 2 in every 5 young adults know how to prevent HIV. In poor countries 60% of young adults does not know how to prevent infection with HIV. In poor countries only 1 in every 10 people is tested for HIV. So 9 in every 10 people do not 

even know if they have the virus. This allows the virus to spread at lightning speed. In the West nearly everyone has access to lifesaving medication; in poor countries only 42% (i.e. 5.5 million people in these countries have no access to AIDS inhibitors). Approximately 7.3 million young women have HIV/AIDS against 4.5 million young men. Two thirds of all newly infected people in Southern Sahara Africa are 15 to 19 year old girls.

For more information on HIV and AIDS please visit the following websites:
Soaids
Aids