Understanding the facts is the key to fighting against prejudice and protecting yourself and others.
We hope the information below will not only be useful but also help you to educate, motivate, and mobilize your local community in the response to HIV/AIDS!
1. HIV and AIDS are the same.
Fact: No. When someone is described as living with HIV, they have the HIV virus in their body. A person is considered to have developed AIDS when the immune system is so weak it can no longer fight off a range of diseases with which it would normally cope.
2. If you get HIV you’ll die soon
Fact: Treatments have come a long way, and although there isn’t a cure for HIV, it is not a death sentence. People diagnosed with HIV today can have a normal life expectancy and live healthy and productive lives.
3.You can tell by looking at someone if they have HIV.
Fact: Often people with HIV will not appear ill. In fact, you generally cannot tell if someone is living with HIV.
4.It takes months before you can have a test for find out if you are infected with HIV.
Fact: A HIV test, that gives a reliable result, can be taken within a month of possible exposure to the virus.
5. I don’t know anyone living with HIV.
Fact: Today there are more people than ever before living with HIV, but less people report knowing someone with HIV. People with HIV generally look healthy and many do not find it easy to tell other people, so you may not realize if someone you know is HIV positive.
6. I don’t need to worry about HIV because there are really good treatments available.
Fact: There is no cure for HIV. Although there are good treatments that mean people can live a long life with HIV, they require taking medication everyday. There can be side-effects. There are also long-term consequences of living with a long-term condition and sadly there is still a lot of stigma and discrimination.
7. People with HIV can’t work.
Fact: Treatments today mean most people with HIV who are working say it doesn’t affect their working lives. There are currently only a very small number of jobs that people with HIV cannot do (e.g. being a surgeon).
8. You can get HIV from someone who spits at you or bites you.
Fact: There is no risk of HIV infection from spitting and the risk of infection from biting is negligible. With over 60 million people infected with HIV worldwide over 25 years, there have only ever been two reports of HIV being transmitted through biting, both instances occurred in extremely specific and unusual circumstances.
9. It’s very easy for me to catch HIV from someone who is infected.
Fact: HIV can be passed on through infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids or breast milk.
The most common ways HIV is passed on are:
1) Sex without a condom with someone living with HIV
2) Sharing infected needles, syringes or other injecting drug equipment
3) From an HIV-positive mother (to her child) during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding
(but with effective treatment and care the risk of transmission can be greatly reduced)
HIV is not spread through day-to-day contact, touching, kissing or sharing utensils. In addition,
being on HIV treatment makes people with HIV far less likely to pass it on.
10.There are no symptoms of HIV.
Fact: It's true that some people don’t show any symptoms of HIV infection until after many years of living with the virus. But the majority of people with HIV (70-90%) do show some symptoms soon after infection. Symptoms usually develop about 10 days after infection. This is often called primary HIV infection or sero-conversion illness. Such symptoms disappear after two to three weeks and then a person can seem healthy for a number of years. The most common symptoms of primary HIV infection are fever, rash and severe sore throat all occurring together. This triad of symptoms is unusual and should indicate the need for an HIV test.
