1. Find out about medicines that fight HIV; and
2. Receive care for HIV-related conditions.

Treatments that fight HIV help people with HIV live longer, healthier lives.

Often, it is best to start treatment before symptoms appear.

A doctor can do blood tests to find out how much HIV is in a person’s body and how much damage the virus has done to the immune system. This information helps people with HIV and their doctors decide when to start treatment and how well treatment is working.

Early medical care helps people with HIV take best advantage of treatments for HIV.

Certain medicines can also prevent some opportunistic illnesses like PCP (Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia). Testing and treatment for other illnesses, like TB (tuberculosis) and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), is also important. These illnesses are more common in people with HIV and can make HIV progress more quickly to AIDS.

It is important to see a doctor who is well informed about HIV. The New York State Department of Health designates doctors who meet certain criteria, like treating HIV-infected patients and taking special courses in HIV-related topics, as HIV specialists.

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• The person’s CD4 cell count, a way to measure the strength of the immune system, falls below 200 (a normal CD4 cell count is 500 or higher); OR
• the person develops any of the specific serious conditions – also called AIDS-defining illnesses – linked with HIV infection

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This is sometimes called seroconversion illness or acute HIV infection.

Most people with HIV have no symptoms for many years. However, even without symptoms, people who are newly infected have large amounts of HIV circulating in their blood and are highly infectious at that time.

HIV infection cannot be diagnosed from symptoms alone. The symptoms of worsening HIV infection and AIDS – swollen glands, fever, and skin rashes – can also be caused by other illnesses, many of which are more common than HIV infection. Only an HIV test can show whether a person has HIV

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• People who have “unprotected sex” with someone who has HIV. Unprotected sex means vaginal, anal, or oral sex without using a condom.
• people who share needles, syringes, or other equipment to inject drugs, steroids, or even vitamins or medicine with someone who has HIV
• Babies can potentially become infected during their mothers’ pregnancy, during delivery, or after birth in the immediate post-partum period. They can also become infected through breastfeeding.
• Health care and maintenance workers who may be exposed to blood and/or body fluids at work sometimes get infected through on-the-job exposures like needle-stick injuries

Before 1985, some people were infected through blood transfusions or the use of blood products. In May 1985, the United States began screening all blood products for HIV, so the risk of getting HIV from a blood transfusion today is now very low.
You can only get HIV if infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk gets into your body

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HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus

HIV attacks the body’s immune system. The immune system protects the body from infections and disease, but has no clear way to protect it from HIV. Without treatment, most people infected with HIV become less able to fight off the germs that we are exposed to every day.

Many of these germs do not usually make a healthy person sick, but they can cause life-threatening infections and cancers in a person whose immune system has been weakened by HIV.

HIV treatments can slow this process and allow people with HIV to live longer,  healthier lives.

People infected with HIV may have no symptoms for ten or more years. They may not know they are infected. An HIV test is the only way to find out if you have HIV.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a late stage of IV disease.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a person with HIV infection has AIDS when he or she:

• has a CD4 cell count (a way to measure the strength of the immune system) that falls below 200.  A normal CD4 cell count is 500 or higher. OR
• develops any of the specific, serious conditions – also called AIDS-defining illnesses – that are linked with HIV infection.

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• Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner;
• Injection or transfusion of contaminated blood or blood products (infection through artificial insemination, skin grafts and organ transplants is also possible);
• sharing unsterilized injection equipment that has been previously used by someone who is infected;
• Maternofetal transmission (during pregnancy, at birth, and through breastfeeding).

Occupational infections of healthcare or laboratory workers may occur; however, a
1995 study estimated that although 600,000 to 800,000 needlestick injuries occurred
among healthcare workers every year in the USA, occupational infection
was not frequent. The risk of occupational HIV transmission from contaminated
needles to healthcare workers was found to be 0.3 % in case series performed prior
to the availability of potent ART.

There are sometimes concerns that there may be alternative routes of HIV transmission.
It must be explicitly stated that HIV is NOT transmitted by mosquitoes, flies,
fleas, bees, or wasps. HIV is NOT transmitted through casual every day contact. No
case of HIV infection has been documented to arise from contact with non-bloody
saliva or tears. Since HIV is not transmitted by saliva, it is not possible to contract it
through sharing a glass, a fork, a sandwich, or fruit (Friedland 1986, Castro 1988,
Fried land 1990). In the opinion of leading experts, exposure of intact skin to HIV contaminated
body fluids (e.g. blood) is not sufficient to transfer the virus.

There are several ways in which someone can become infected with HIV. These transmission routes are well defined. HIV infection can be transmitted through:

• unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner;
• injection or transfusion of contaminated blood or blood products (infectionthrough artificial insemination, skin grafts and organ transplants is also possible)
• sharing unsterilized injection equipment that has been previously used by someone who is infected
• maternofetal transmission (during pregnancy, at birth, and through breastfeeding).

Occupational infections of healthcare or laboratory workers may occur; however, a 1995 study estimated that although 600,000 to 800,000 needlestick injuries occurred among healthcare workers every year in the USA, occupational infection
was not frequent. The risk of occupational HIV transmission from contaminated needles to healthcare workers was found to be 0.3 % in case series performed prior to the availability of potent ART. 24 Introduction
There are sometimes concerns that there may be alternative routes of HIV transmission.

It must be explicitly stated that HIV is NOT transmitted by mosquitoes, flies, fleas, bees, or wasps. HIV is NOT transmitted through casual every day contact.

No case of HIV infection has been documented to arise from contact with non-bloody saliva or tears. Since HIV is not transmitted by saliva, it is not possible to contract it through sharing a glass, a fork, a sandwich, or fruit (Friedland 1986, Castro 1988,
Friedland 1990). In the opinion of leading experts, exposure of intact skin to HIV contaminated
body fluids (e.g. blood) is not sufficient to transfer the virus.

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