HIV AIDS

What is HIV?

•HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the body's immune system. If left untreated, it can cause AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).

• There is currently no effective cure. Once you get HIV, you have it for life.

• However, with proper medical care, it can be controlled. People with HIV infection who receive effective treatment can live long and healthy lives and protect their partners.Where did HIV come from?

• HIV infection in humans came from a type of chimpanzee from Central Africa.

• The chimpanzee version of the virus (called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV) may have been transmitted to humans when chimpanzees were hunted for their meat and came into contact with infected blood.

• Studies show that HIV may have passed from chimpanzees to humans as early as the late 1800s.

• The virus spread slowly throughout Africa over several decades and then to other parts of the world. We know that the virus has been in the United States since the second half of the 1970s, at the earliest.

For more information on the history of HIV in the United States and the CDC's response to the epidemic.

How do I know if I have HIV?

The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. Knowing whether or not you have it helps you make healthy choices to prevent getting or spreading HIV.

How do I know if I have HIV?

The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. Knowing whether or not you have it helps you make healthy choices to prevent getting or spreading HIV.

Are there symptoms?

In some people it produces flu-like symptoms within 2 to 4 weeks after infection (called acute HIV infection). These symptoms can last a few days or several weeks. Possible symptoms include:

However, during acute HIV infection, some people may not feel sick. If you have these symptoms, it does not mean that you have HIV infection. Other diseases can cause the same symptoms.

See a health care provider if you have these symptoms and think you may have been exposed to HIV. Getting tested for HIV is the only way to know for sure.

What are the stages of HIV?

When people with HIV do not receive treatment, the infection usually goes through three stages of progression. But HIV medications can slow or prevent the progression of the disease. With advances in treatment, progression to stage 3 is less common today than it was in the beginning.

Phase 1: Acute HIV infection

• People have a large amount of HIV in their blood. They are very contagious.

• Some people have flu-like symptoms. This is the body's natural response to infection.

• But some people may not feel sick right away or at all.

• If you have flu-like symptoms and think you may have been exposed to HIV, seek medical attention and ask to be tested for acute HIV infection.

• It can only be diagnosed with antigen and antibody tests, or with nucleic acid tests (NAT).

Phase 2: Chronic HIV infection

• The phase of chronic HIV infection is also called the phase of asymptomatic infection or clinical latency.

• During this phase, the virus is still active, but it reproduces at very low levels.

• During this phase people may not have any symptoms or feel sick.

• The phase can last a decade or more if HIV drugs are not taken, but in some people the progression can be more rapid.

• During the chronic infection phase, HIV can be transmitted.

• At the end of this phase, the amount of HIV in the blood (called the viral load) increases and the CD4 cell count decreases. As virus levels in the body increase and the infection progresses to stage 3, people may develop symptoms.

• People who take HIV medications as directed may never reach stage 3.

Phase 3: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is the most serious phase of HIV infection.

• People with AIDS have such damaged immune systems that they begin to get an increasing number of serious illnesses, which are called opportunistic infections.

• People are diagnosed with AIDS when their CD4 cell count drops below 200 cells/mm or when they start getting certain opportunistic infections.

• People with AIDS can have high viral load levels and be highly contagious.

• Without treatment, people with AIDS usually survive about three years.