AIDS Facts

Written by Carol Dickens

Get the Right AIDS Facts Since AIDS and HIV first started becoming a problem, the world has been rife with wrong AIDS information.  People have all sorts of misconceptions about the disease that it can be hard to tell what the real facts are.  Not only does this cause people to spout lies, but it also hurts the cause.  When people think negative and misleading things about a disease like this, one that affects more than thirty million people in the world, it can stall any helpful efforts related to the cause.  The following are the worst misconceptions and the real facts that go along with them. One of the most popular misconceptions about AIDS has to do with how it is contracted.  There are a large number of people who believe that they can get AIDS through casual contact.  Because of this, they avoid hugging people with the virus, or even shaking hands.  In reality, it is much harder to get AIDS.  You can't get it from a toilet seat, or from sharing a drink with someone.  It is very rare, almost impossible, to get AIDS from kissing someone.   You can only get AIDS from contact with certain bodily fluids.  This includes blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, breast milk, and blood.  If you avoid coming into contact with these fluids, there should be no way that you could get the virus.  The main applications of this is through, blood transfusions, sharing needles, and sex.  As far as sex goes, you can become infected through anal, vaginal, and oral sex.  To avoid this, always use protection, such as condoms.  Essentially, you need a barrier between you and any of the other person's fluids that are listed above. Another common misconception that you will find amidst AIDS information is the kind of people that can get sick.  People assume that only drug users or homosexual males can get AIDS.  This isn't true.  No one is immune to the virus.  People from all walks of life have AIDS and HIV.  It is best to always protect yourself, even if the person you're with is heterosexual and doesn't do drugs. There is a large social stigma when it comes to the AIDS virus.  Many people think that it is the fault of homosexual men that the virus is so widespread.  Truthfully, there is no cut and dry reason why this virus has become an epidemic.  Still, people think lots of negative things about the virus.  This is especially the case since it is most often spread through sexual means.   Unfortunately, some people are born with AIDS.  This can happen several ways.  Babies can get it while in the womb through the pregnancy, childbirth, or from breastfeeding.  Most children born to a woman with AIDS or HIV are born with the illness as well.  Children also have a much harder time dealing with the virus.  It can be harder for them and they often die faster.  As far as treatments go, they usually need vigorous amounts of antiretroviral therapy, which can cause a lot of nasty side effects.   There is currently no cure for AIDS or HIV, although scientists are always working to find one.  People instead use various medications to help keep the disease in check.  Someone with HIV taking the medication can live as many as twenty years after contracting the illness.  If they don't take the treatment though, this gets reduced to only about ten years.  If AIDS is contract, people tend to only live for six to nineteen months after getting sick.  Now that you know more about the illness, you can see how the misconceptions can really hurt the cause.

 

< Prev		Next >