myth about aids

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 defining opportunistic infection.

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

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 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 reliableProgress in testing methodology has enabled detection of viral genetic material, antigens, and the virus itself in bodily fluids and cells. While not widely used for routine testing due to high cost and requirements in laboratory equipment, these direct testing techniques have confirmed the validity of the antibody tests

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 performers have blood in their mouth due to cuts, open sores, or gum disease, the risk is higher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has only recorded one case of possible HIV transmission through kissing (involving an HIV infected man with significant gum disease and a sexual partner also with significant gum disease.