Awareness on HIV AIDS with basic facts

Since AIDS is the epidemic disease in our standard of living,  therefore it is important for us to know something about this disease. In our state of Meghalaya, the rise of this disease is increasing day by day due to lack of knowledge or awareness to the people. So, here i got a few lines to say about this deadliest disease.

What You Need to Know About HIV and AIDS

A few facts you need to know about HIV and AIDS. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a deadly disease of STD infection caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Mostly said, that AIDS is a late stage of HIV infection. People who are infected with HIV can look and feel healthy which may not know for years  that they are infected. However, they can infect other people no matter how healthy they seem.

What HIV virus do to our body?

HIV virus slowly wipes out parts of the body's immune system, then the HIV-infected person gets sick because the immune system of the body can't fight against the HIV virus. 

Signs of HIV infection 

Sign and symptom of HIV infection are similar to other common illnesses and it may vary from person to person but these are the common signs, such as swollen glands, tiring easily, losing weight, fever, or diarrhea etc.

Where do HIV virus live?

HIV virus cant survive longer outside. Its stay alive in people's blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk. 

How do we know that we are infected with this virus?

There is no way to know that we are infected with HIV virus by simply watching the sign and symptom, but only way to tell if someone is infected with HIV is with a blood test. 

Is HIV curable?

No, HIV is not curable, that means there is no vaccine to prevent HIV infection and therefore no cure for AIDS. There are treatments that can keep infected people healthy longer and prevent diseases that people with AIDS often get. HIV slowly makes an infected person sicker and sicker. Diseases and infections will cause serious illness, but people often get better -- until the next illness. Sometimes, HIV can damage the brain and cause changes in feelings and moods, even make it hard to think clearly. Someone with AIDS can feel fine in the morning and be very sick in the afternoon.

How HIV is Spread?
HIV is spread mostly by the following routes:

● By having unprotected anal, vaginal, or oral sex with one who is infected with HIV

● By sharing needles or syringes ("works") with someone who is infected with HIV
● From mothers to their babies before the baby is born, during birth, or through breast-feeding.

● It also be spread from infected blood through blood transfusions, blood products (such as clotting factors given to people with hemophilia), or organ or tissue transplants

Since then, all donated blood and donors of organs or tissue are tested for HIV. Health care workers, such as nurses, risk getting infected if they are stuck with a needle containing infected blood or splashed with infected blood in the eyes, nose, mouth, or on open cuts or sores. 

Taking the drug AZT during pregnancy can reduce the changes of infecting the baby by two-thirds, but will not prevent all babies from becoming infected with HIV.

In a few cases, a person sharing a house with a person with HIV infection or taking care of a person with AIDS has become infected themselves. These infections may have been caused by sharing a razor, getting blood from the infected person into open cuts or sores, or some other way of having contact with blood from the infected person. If you are taking care of a person with HIV infection, carefully follow the steps on protecting yourself from infection discussed later.

How HIV is NOT Spread?
● You don't get HIV from the air, food, water, insects, animals, dishes, knives, forks, spoons, toilet seats, or anything else that doesn't involve blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk. 

● You don't get HIV from feces, nasal fluid, saliva, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit, unless these have blood mixed in them. You can help people with HIV eat, dress, even bathe, without becoming infected yourself, and do follow some points below.

Protect Yourself
Because the virus that causes AIDS is in the blood of infected persons, blood or other body fluids (such as bloody feces) that have blood in them could infect you, so if you are taking care for the infected person, it is important to protect yourself some of the simple steps of wearing gloves before touching any blood stained sample of infected person.

A person who has AIDS may sometimes have infections that can make you sick. Talk to the doctor or nurse to find out what germs can infect you and other people in the house. 

● Wear gloves if you have to touch semen, vaginal fluid, cuts or sores on the person with AIDS, or blood or body fluids that may have blood in them. Do not use disposable gloves more than one time.  Wash your hands after using the bathroom and before fixing food. Boil your drinking water for at least 1 minute to kill the parasite, then let the water cool before drinking

● If the person with AIDS has a cough that lasts longer than a week, contact the doctor for TB checked up because a person with AIDS are easily susceptible to many kind of illness. If they do have TB, then you and everybody else living in the house should be checked for TB infection, even if you aren't coughing. If you are infected with TB germs, you can take medicine that will prevent you from developing TB.

● If the person with AIDS gets yellow jaundice (a sign of acute hepatitis) or has chronic hepatitis B infection, you and everybody else living in the house and any people the person with AIDS has had sex with, should talk to their doctor to see if anyone needs to take medicine to prevent hepatitis. All children should get hepatitis B vaccine whether or not they are around a person with AIDS.

● If the person with AIDS has fever blisters or cold sores (herpes simplex) around the mouth or nose, don't kiss or touch the sores. If you have to touch the sores to help the person, wear gloves and wash your hands carefully as soon as you take the gloves off. This is especially important if you have eczema (allergic skin) since the herpes simplex virus can cause severe skin disease in people with eczema. Throw the used gloves away; never use disposable gloves more than once.

● Many persons with or without AIDS are infected with a virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV), which can be spread in urine or saliva. Wash your hands after touching urine or saliva from a person with AIDS. This is especially important for someone who may be pregnant because a pregnant woman infected with CMV can also infect her unborn child. CMV causes birth defects such as deafness.

● If you get blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, or other body fluid that might have blood in it in your eyes, nose, or mouth, immediately pour as much water as possible over where you got splashed, then call the doctor, explain what happened, and ask what else you should do. 

● Do not have unprotected sex with the HIV infected person. Use condom as protection. Do not have multi-patner.

Remember, to protect yourself and the person with AIDS from these diseases and others, be sure to wash your hands with soap and water before and after giving care, when handling food, after taking gloves of, and after going to the bathroom.

● If you have to handle these needles and syringes, you must be careful not to stick yourself. That is one way you could get infected with HIV. 

Use a needle and syringe only one time. 

Do not put caps back on needles. 

Do not take needles off syringes. 

Do not break or bend needles. If a needle falls off a syringe, use something like tweezers or pliers to pick it up; do not use your fingers. 

Touch needles and  syringes only by the barrel of the syringe. 

Hold the sharp end away from yourself. 

Put the used needle and syringe in a puncture-proof container. The doctor, nurse, or an AIDS service organization can give you a special container. If you don't have one, use a puncture-proof container with a plastic top, such as a coffee can. 

Keep a container in any room where needles and syringes are used. 

Put it well out of the reach of children or visitors, but in a place you can easily and quickly put the needle and syringe after they are used. 

When the container gets nearly full, seal it and get a new container. 

Ask the doctor or nurse how to get rid of the container with the used needles and syringes. 

● Flush all liquid waste (urine, vomit, etc.) that has blood in it down the toilet. Be careful not to splash anything when you are pouring liquids into the toilet. Toilet paper and tissues with blood, semen, vaginal fluid, or breast milk may also be flushed down the toilet.

● Paper towels, sanitary pads and tampons,wound dressings and bandages, diapers, and other items with blood, semen, or vaginal fluid on them cannot be flushed should be put in plastic bags. Put the items in the bag, then aclose and seal the bag. Ask the doctor, nurse, or local health department about how to get rid of things with blood, urine, vomit, semen, vaginal fluid, or breast milk on them.

What can u do, if you stuck yourself with needle of infected person?

If you get stuck with a needle used on the person with AIDS, don't panic. The chances are very good (better than 99%) that you will not be infected. However, you need to act quickly to get medical care. Put the needle in the used needle container, then wash where you stuck yourself as soon as you can, using warm, soapy water. Right after washing, call the doctor or the emergency room of a hospital, no matter what time it is, explain what happened, and ask what else you should do. Your doctor may want you to take medicine, such as AZT. If you are going to take AZT, you should begin taking it as soon as possible, certainly within a few hours of the needle stick.

AIDS cant be cure. But it can be treated with ART (antiretroviral drug) just to live longer life.

NOTE: I am not a doctor, but the source of these information above was the outcome of my studied. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comment box.

Share this information as  maximum as you can, lets AIDS be understood by everybody.