This is the name of the virus that leads to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). HIV infections have become pandemic. HIV occurs through the transmission of blood, semen and vaginal fluid. The most common way of infection is through sexual contact. Other than that, blood transfusion can cause the spread of HIV too, usually occur by accident in hospital. There are cases reported around the world when healthy human beings get infected solely on blood transfusion. However, as the time goes by, hospitals are becoming more and more careful when selecting blood donors to avoid the same incidents from happening again.
HIV has to go through different cycles before becoming AIDS. Not everyone who is infected is aware that he or she is infected with HIV. You will never know whether you are infected or not, without having to go through series of tests. To be safer, it is best to go check with a doctor so that if you are infected, you can avoid spreading the infection to other people. If you are not infected, at least you can learn to have safe sex and educate other people as well. Let the education be spread all over with the rise of HIV infections all over the world since the 1980s when it was first discovered as an epidemic.
There is no cure for HIV or AIDS. The only method to prevent HIV or AIDS is through the avoidance of this virus. Current treatment for HIV infected people includes ‘highly active antiretroviral therapy’, or HAART. This treatment is able to help the patients to be a bit healthier so to live the remaining life in a better state, but it cannot cure the disease. AIDS has killed more than 25 millions people since it was discovered in the late 1980s, and since then the death toll keeps on rising without fail. This is alarming, but we are all doing as much as we can to prevent HIV from spreading. This is why sexual health is very important for our younger generations.