What Is HIV? - HIV Symptoms And Treatment | familydoctor.org (original) (raw)

What is HIV?

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the body’s immune system. A healthy immune system is what keeps you from getting sick.

When HIV damages your immune system, you are more likely to get sick from bacteria and viruses. It is also harder for your body to fight off these infections when you do get them, so you may have trouble getting better.

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is the term used when persons have advanced HIV disease. This increases your risk for infections and other serious HIV-associated conditions. With treatment, most Americans who have HIV are unlikely to develop AIDS.

HIV Symptoms

When first infected with HIV, you may not experience any symptoms. More often, though, you’ll have flu-like symptoms, including:

As the disease progresses, symptoms may appear and/or get worse. This may take time. Some people who have HIV do not begin experiencing symptoms for up to 10 years. When HIV symptoms do appear, they can include:

What causes HIV?

HIV can only be passed from person to person through infectious body fluids, such as blood, semen, and vaginal fluid.

Children born to people with HIV can also acquire HIV during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding. However, this happens less often now. It can be prevented by giving medicines to the pregnant person and to their newborn baby.

The most common ways HIV is passed are:

You are more at risk for HIV if you:

Can HIV be prevented or avoided?

The best way to prevent HIV is to not have sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) with a person who has HIV, or share a needle with a person who has HIV. However, there is also a medicine called PrEP that people can take before coming into contact with HIV that can prevent them from getting an HIV infection.

PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis. It is for people who are at long-term risk of getting HIV either through sexual activity or by injecting drugs. If you’re taking PrEP and come into contact with HIV, the medicine makes it difficult for HIV to develop inside your body.

Other ways to prevent HIV include:

HIV treatment

Even though there is no cure for HIV, there are many medicines available to help combat it. These medicines (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) will often prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS. Even when HIV does progress to AIDS, antiretroviral therapy is often still effective. However, it is most effective the earlier you begin treatment.

Better ART has changed HIV disease from the leading killer of young adults to a chronic disease that can be controlled for decades. However, even though you can take HIV medicines and feel okay, you could still give the virus to others through unsafe sex (without using a condom) or blood exchanges. The medicines don’t kill the virus — they just keep your immune system strong enough to prevent AIDS or slow it down.

With treatment, the survival rate for HIV is very good. In the United States, people with HIV who are diagnosed early can have a life span that is about the same as someone like them who does not have HIV, according to HIV.gov.

Living with HIV

If you are living with HIV, you need to take very good care of yourself. Be sure to eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get plenty of rest. Make sure you follow your doctor’s instructions and take all of your medicines exactly as directed. You can also take steps to keep yourself from getting other infections or diseases that are more common in people who have HIV.

It is also important to see your doctor regularly so that he or she can monitor your treatment. Your doctor will probably want to see you every 6 months as long as your CD4 cell count is good. If it drops below 500, your doctor may want to see you every 3 months. Your doctor also may want to see you more often if you are trying a new medicine to see how you’re responding to it. It is important to make sure your HIV infection is not getting worse.

Some of the things that might tell your doctor that your HIV infection has gotten worse since your last visit are:

You should also proactively try to prevent other infections and complications. HIV can increase your risk for other diseases and conditions because it weakens your immune system. Here are some things you can do to help protect yourself.

All persons with HIV should also be tested for, and immunized against, hepatitis B.

Questions to ask your doctor