Myth about AIDS

1. HIV is not spread through touch, tears, sweat, or saliva. You cannot catch HIV by: Breathing the same air as someone who is HIV positive. Touching a toilet seat or doorknob handle after an HIV positive person. Drinking from a water fountain. Hugging, kissing, or shaking hands with someone who is HIV positive. Sharing eating utensils with an HIV po .....

Nothing to worry about becoming HIV positive new drugs will keep me well

2. Antiretroviral drugs are improving and extending the lives of many people who are HIV positive. However, many of these drugs are expensive and produce serious side effects. None yet provides a cure. Also, drug resistant strains of HIV make treatment an increasing challenge. .....

HIV from mosquitoes

3. AIDS is spread through blood, people have worried that biting or bloodsucking insects might spread HIV. Several studies, however, show no evidence to support this even in areas with lots of mosquitoes and cases of HIV. When insects bite, they do not inject the blood of the person or animal they have last bitten. Also, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect. .....

Im HIV positive my life is over

4. The death rate from AIDS was extremely high In the early years of the disease epidemic But today, antiretroviral drugs allow HIV positive people and even those with AIDS to live much longer, normal, and productive lives. .....

AIDS is genocide

5. as 30% of African Americans and Latinos expressed the view that HIV was a government conspiracy to kill minorities. Instead, higher rates of infection in these populations may be due, in part, to a lower level of health care. .....

Im straight and dont use IV drugs I wont become HIV positive

6. Most men do become HIV positive through sexual contact with other men. However, about 16% of men and 78% of women become HIV positive through heterosexual contact. .....

If Im receiving treatment I cant spread the HIV virus

7. . Research shows, however, that the virus is still hiding in other areas of the body. It is still essential to practice safe sex so you wont make someone else become HIV positive. When HIV treatments work well, they can reduce the amount of virus in your blood to a level so low that it doesnt show up in blood tests .....

My partner and I are both HIV positive theres no reason for us to practice safer sex

8. Practicing safer sex wearing condoms or using dental dams can protect you both from becoming exposed to other (potentially drug resistant) strains of HIV. .....

I could tell if my partner was HIV positive

9. The only way for you or your partner to know if youre HIV positive is to get tested. You can be HIV positive and not have any symptoms for years. .....

You cant get HIV from oral sex

10. Oral sex is less risky than some other types of sex. But you can get HIV by having oral sex with either a man or a woman who is HIV positive. Always use a latex barrier during oral sex. .....

ARVs disfigure you

11. In the past, some ARVs displaced fat in people s bodies. One such drug, D4T, also known as Stavudine, was on the South African list for HIV treatment until early last year. It is a cheap drug that works efficiently but has many side effects, such as the loss of fat in the legs, arms and face, resulting in people s bodies looking .....

If I or my partner were HIV positive we could not have children

12. HIV infected women are fertile and can have children. If mothers and their babies use the correct medication, it s possible for HIV positive women to have HIV negative babies.Without using drugs, there is a 30% chance that HIV infected women will pass the virus on to their babies in the womb, during birth or by breastfeeding. But if the mother and baby, or even just one of them, use short courses of ARVs,, transmission rates are reduced significa .....

Current medications can cure AIDS It s no big deal if you get infected

13. Today s medications have cut the death rate from AIDS by about 80%. They are also easier to take than they used to be. However, they still have side effects, are very expensive, and have to be taken every day for the rest of your life. If you miss too many doses, HIV can develop resistance (see fact sheet 126) to the drugs you are taking and they can stop working. .....

You have to take your doses exactly 12 hours apart

14. Medications today are fairly forgiving. Although you will have the most consistent blood levels of your drugs if they are taken at even intervals through the day, they won t stop working if you re off by an hour or two. However, some drugs can require careful timing. .....

You have to take 100 persent of your doses or else the drugs stop working

15. It s very important to take AIDS medications correctly. In fact, if you miss more than about 5% of your doses, HIV has an easier time developing resistance and possibly being able to multiply even when you re taking your medications. However, 100% adherence is not realistic for just about anyone. Do the best you can and be sure to let your health care provider what s going on. .....

Current drugs are so strong that you can stop taking them with no problem

16. There have been many studies of .....

AIDS drugs are poison and are more dangerous than the HIV virus

17. It s true that some people get serious side effects from AIDS medications: When the first AIDS drugs became available, they weren t as good as current medications. People still died of AIDS related conditions, but the death rate in the US has dropped by about 80%. Researchers are working hard to make HIV treatments easier and safer to use. .....

AIDS can be cured

18. Till dated, there is no cure for HIV or AIDS and there are no vaccines to prevent HIV infection. There is no cure for HIV, so practice safe sex habits. .....

AIDS is a gay disease

19. Anyone can be susceptible to HIV/AIDS, regardless of their sexual orientation. Everyone is at risk of getting HIV from blood to blood contact, sharing needles or unsafe sex. Worldwide, HIV is spread most often through heterosexual contact. .....

AIDS crisis will solve by vaccine

20. A sequence of scientific advances indicate that significant progress is being made toward the creation of an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine.A vaccine will not solve the AIDS crisis,while many advances have been made in vaccine research, significant gaps remain in the scientific knowledge needed to develop an effective vaccine.HIV vaccine research is often slow due to lack of financial incentives to develop such a vaccine. Lack of coordination among r .....

You can get AIDS by kissing an HIV infected person

21. Because of the theoretical potential for contact with blood during French or open mouthed kissing, the CDC recommends against engaging in this activity with an infected person. However, no cases of AIDS have been attributed to any kind of kissing.casual contact through closed mouth or social kissing is not a risk for transmission of HIV. .....

I cant have more than one sexually transmitted disease at a time

22. A person can be infected with more than one STD. A person with an untreated STD may also be 6 10 times more likely to pass on or acquire HIV during sex. Risk for infection increases 10 to 300 fold in the presence of a genital ulcer, such as occurs in syphilis or genital herpes. .....

Getting tested for HIV is pointless

23. Knowing if you are HIV positive will allow you to seek early treatment that can help you stay healthy longer and enable you not to pass on the virus to someone else. Regardless of your HIV status, you can learn how to prevent further infection from HIV and other STDs through counseling offered at many HIV testing centers. .....

AIDS is mostly an African problem

24. 42 million people around the world who live with HIV/AIDS, 70% are in sub Saharan Africa. But AIDS is not an African problem HIV/AIDS continues to spread in the rest of the world, especially in countries or communities within countries where poverty, inequality, and conflict are prevalent. Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the fastest rates of spread, followed by countries in Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, and Latin America. .....

To stop the spread of HIV people simply need to give up promiscuous sex and drug use

25. Socioeconomic structures around the world constrain many peoples ability to make free choices regarding the behaviors that put them at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. Economic insecurity, gender and racial inequalities, labor migration, and armed conflict all limit peoples ability to avoid exposure to the virus. .....

HIV is the same as AIDS

26. HIV is an acronym for human immunodeficiency virus, which is the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). While this virus is the underlying cause of AIDS, not all HIV positive individuals have AIDS, as HIV can remain in a latent state for many years. If undiagnosed or left untreated, HIV usually progresses to AIDS, defined as possessing a CD4+ lymphocyte count under 200 cells/?l or HIV infection plus co infection with an AIDS .....

Sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS

27. Sex with an uninfected virgin does not cure an HIV infected person, and such contact will expose the uninfected individual to HIV, potentially further spreading the disease. This myth has gained considerable notoriety as the perceived reason for certain sexual abuse and child molestation occurrences, including the rape of infants, in Africa .....

Sexual intercourse with an animal will avoid or cure AIDS

28. In 2002, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) in Johannesburg, South Africa, recorded beliefs amongst youths that sex with animals is a means to avoid AIDS or cure it if infected. The risk of contracting HIV via sex with animals is small, but the practice has its own health risks .....

HIV antibody testing is unreliable

29. HIV antibody tests exceed the performance of most other infectious disease tests in both sensitivity (the ability of the screening test to give a positive finding when the person tested truly has the disease) and specificity (the ability of the test to give a negative finding when the subjects tested are free of the disease under study). Many current HIV antibody tests have sensitivity and specificity in excess of 96% and are therefore extremely .....

HIV can be spread through casual contact with an HIV infected individual

30. One cannot become infected with HIV through day to day contact in social settings, schools, or in the workplace. One cannot be infected by shaking someones hand, by hugging or dry kissing someone, by using the same toilet or drinking from the same glass as an HIV infected person, or by being exposed to coughing or sneezing by an infected person, so even open mouthed kissing is considered a low risk. However, if the infected partner or both of the .....

HIV positive individuals can be detected by their appearance

31. Many people believe that individuals infected with HIV will always appear a certain way, or at least appear different from an uninfected, healthy person. In fact, disease progression can occur over a long period of time before the onset of symptoms, and as such, HIV infections cannot be detected based on appearance. .....

HIV survives for only a short time outside the body

32. HIV can survive at room temperature outside the body for hours if dry (provided that initial concentrations are highand for weeks if wet (in used syringes/needles). However, the amounts typically present in bodily fluids do not survive nearly as long outside the body generally no more than a few minutes if dry. Again, the amount of time is longer if wet, especially in syringes/needles and related equipment. .....

HIV can infect only homosexual men and drug users

33. In the United States, the main route of infection for males is via homosexual anal sex, while for women transmission is primarily through heterosexual contact Nevertheless, HIV can infect anybody regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, or sexual orientation t is true that anal sex (regardless of the gender of the receptive partner) carries a higher risk of infection than most sex acts, but most penetrative sex acts between any individuals carry some r .....

Being HIV positive means you can t do certain things like be a nurse or parent

34. There is no job you can t do if you are HIV positive. And men and women with the virus can be parents to an HIV negative baby. In the UK theres less than a 1% chance of babies with an HIV positive mum getting the virus. .....

HIV positive people are treated just like everyone else

35. They should be and they often are. But one in three people living with HIV still report they have encountered discrimination in the UK. And in the US research has shown stigma and shame are the biggest barriers to people starting treatment after being diagnosed as HIV positive. .....

Scientists are five years from a cure for AIDS

36. The stories scientists place in the media, promising a cure in five years, boost their academic reputation and get the research money rolling in. We shouldn t be cynical about that, as without reputation building and cash, they ll never find a cure. But we shouldn t fall for it either. .....

People who have HIV cannot have sex with people who do not have HIV

37. The truth is many people who have HIV have sexual relations with HIV negative people. Condoms weren t meant to protect negative people from other negative people! Condoms are one part of prevention, but another big part of HIV prevention is called .....

Straight women only get HIV because their men are on the down low

38. The problem with the down low is not whether or not it actually exists, but that it is always tied to the HIV epidemic and to the black community with very little data to support that claim. If you really believe in the down low, then you have to believe in something else: homophobia and stigma. If things like the down low make you angry, then you should be angry that there are communities in which homophobia and stigma are so ingrained that peop .....

HIV/AIDS is a chronic manageable disease

39. HIV/AIDS is a chronic manageable disease. However, unlike HIV/AIDS, having diabetes does not have nearly as much stigma attached to it. HIV stigma is any feeling of disgrace/shame/dirtiness associated with someone who is HIV positive. People with HIV are often met with violence, legal action, job loss, betrayal from former partners and more .....

HIV is a punishment from God

40. It is a disease that millions of people in the US live with everyday. Some clergy even live with HIV! One of our bloggers is a clergywoman living with HIV who openly discusses her experiences in faith communities. Many people believe that churches should be the leaders in the fight against HIV in their communities. Also, many theologians are wrestling with how agood Christian should respond to the HIV epidemic. .....

HIV will progress to AIDS and the person will die soon

41. Antiretroviral treatments can stop the various AIDS like conditions from manifesting for years. If the drug procedure is continued the viral load in the blood is undetectable and the person will not exhibit any AIDS like diseases. Regular medication will prevent the HIV strain from affecting the resistance of the body HIV only progresses to AIDS if left untreated .....

Only people from the lower socio economic class are affected by HIV

42. Anyone can fall prey to the condition. Participating in risky sexual behaviour like unprotected sex with strangers, unhygienic use of syringes and needled and transmission from an HIV positive mother to child are all possible scenarios HIV knows no class .....

HIV and AIDS are only caused through sex

43. This can occur in hospitals, tattoo parlours and in individuals taking intravenous drugs. Also, breast milk from an HIV infected mother can cause HIV in the new born, if breast fed unknowingly. Very rarely, HIV can also spread through deep kissing if either of the persons are HIV+ and have bleeding gums. viral strains can also spread through unsafe and unhygienic usage of needles .....

The baby of a HIV Positive pregnant mother will also have the infection

44. There are less than two per cent chances of the baby being infected with HIV. If the condition of the mother is previously known, ART can prevent the unborn baby from being infected. Whether an HIV mother can or cannot breastfeed is still in a grey research area. One research in South Africa found that babies who were breastfed by their HIV positive mothers showed a lesser likelihood of mother to child transmission HIV than the ones who were brea .....

I m straight and don t use drugs I won t become HIV positive

45. Most men do become HIV positive through sexual contact with other men or through injection drug use. However, about 16% of men and 78% of women become HIV positive through heterosexual contact. .....