What is AIDS- Acquired immunodeficiency Syndrome? All you need to know

Acquired immun­od­e­fi­cien­cy syn­drome (AIDS) is a chron­ic, poten­tial­ly life-threat­en­ing con­di­tion caused by the human immun­od­e­fi­cien­cy virus (HIV). HIV is a sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infec­tion (STI).

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There’s no cure for HIV/AIDS, but med­ica­tions can dra­mat­i­cal­ly slow the pro­gres­sion of the dis­ease. These drugs have reduced AIDS deaths in many devel­oped nations.

Symptoms

Pos­si­ble signs and symp­toms include:

• Fever
• Headache
• Mus­cle aches and joint pain
• Rash
• Sore throat and painful mouth sores
• Swollen lymph glands, main­ly on the neck
• Diar­rhea
• Weight loss
• Cough
• Night sweats

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How HIV spreads

To become infect­ed with HIV, infect­ed blood, semen or vagi­nal secre­tions must enter your body. This can hap­pen in sev­er­al ways:

• By hav­ing sex. You may become infect­ed if you have vagi­nal, anal or oral sex with an infect­ed part­ner whose blood, semen or vagi­nal secre­tions enter your body. 
• By shar­ing nee­dles. Shar­ing con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed IV drug para­pher­na­lia (nee­dles and syringes) puts you at high risk of HIV and oth­er infec­tious dis­eases, such as hepatitis.
• From blood trans­fu­sions. In some cas­es, the virus may be trans­mit­ted through blood transfusions. 
• Dur­ing preg­nan­cy or deliv­ery or through breast-feed­ing. Infect­ed moth­ers can pass the virus on to their babies. 

How HIV doesn’t spread

You can’t become infect­ed with HIV through ordi­nary con­tact. That means you can’t catch HIV or AIDS by hug­ging, kiss­ing, danc­ing or shak­ing hands with some­one who has the infection.

HIV isn’t spread through the air, water or insect bites.

Prevention

There’s no vac­cine to pre­vent HIV infec­tion and no cure for AIDS. But you can pro­tect your­self and oth­ers from infection.

To help pre­vent the spread of HIV:

• Use treat­ment as pre­ven­tion (TasP). If you’re liv­ing with HIV, tak­ing HIV med­ica­tion can keep your part­ner from becom­ing infect­ed with the virus. 
• Use post-expo­sure pro­phy­lax­is (PEP) if you’ve been exposed to HIV If you think you’ve been exposed through sex, nee­dles or in the work­place, con­tact your doc­tor or go to the emer­gency department. 
• Use a new con­dom every time you have sex. Use a new con­dom every time you have anal or vagi­nal sex. 
•  Use a clean nee­dle. If you use a nee­dle to inject drugs, make sure it’s ster­ile and don’t share it. 
• If you’re preg­nant, get med­ical care right away. If you’re HIV-pos­i­tive, you may pass the infec­tion to your baby. But if you receive treat­ment dur­ing preg­nan­cy, you can sig­nif­i­cant­ly cut your baby’s risk.