World must ‘speed up’ efforts to end AIDS pandemic by 2030

The AIDS pandemic continues to be responsible for more than 13,000 deaths every week.

To end AIDS, beat COVID-19 and “stop the pandemics of the future”, the world needs to ensure global access to lifesaving health technologies, the UN Chef de Cabinet has told a meeting of the General Assembly to review progress.

PREVENTIONS.

Today, more tools than ever are available to prevent HIV. You can use strategies such as abstinence (not having sex), never sharing needles, and using condoms the right way every time you have sex. You may also be able to take advantage of HIV prevention medicines such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). If you have HIV, there are many actions you can take to prevent transmitting HIV to others.

01-Protect Yourself During Sex.

Choose sex that is less risky than anal or vaginal sex. There is little to no risk of getting HIV through oral sex.

You can’t get HIV from sexual activities that don’t involve contact with body fluids (semen, vaginal fluid, or blood).

Learn more about how HIV is and is not transmitted.

Not having sex (also known as being abstinent) is a 100% effective way to make sure you won’t get HIV through sex.

You can be abstinent at different times in your life for different reasons that may change over time.

Not having sex also prevents other STDs and pregnancy.

02-Use Condoms.

There is no reason to be lax when it comes to condoms. Short of abstinence, internal and external condoms are still the most reliable mean of preventing pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). No other preventive strategy can do all three.

Preventing STDs is important because they can increase the risk of HIV by compromising delicate vaginal or anal tissues. This is not only true of STDs like syphilis that cause open sores but also any STD that causes genital inflammation.

03-Protect Others If You Have HiV.

Get in care and take medicine to treat HIV.

HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood (called viral load). HIV medicine can make the viral load very low—so low that a test can’t detect it (called an undetectable viral load).

People with HIV who keep an undetectable viral load (or stay virally suppressed) can live long, healthy lives. Viral suppression is defined as having less than 200 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood.

If a person has an undetectable viral load, they will not transmit HIV to their partner through sex.

Having an undetectable viral load also prevents transmission to others through sharing needles, syringes, or other injection equipment, and from mother-to-child during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.

Most people can get the virus under control within six months.

Taking ART does not prevent transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

04-Prevent Mother To Child Transmission.

The prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV involves all stages of pregnancy. Due to the routine screening of HIV during pregnancy, mother-to-child transmission is uncommon in the United States. Even so, it still occurs.

By placing the mother on antiretroviral therapy early in the pregnancy, the risk of transmission is extremely low. Even if treatment is started later in the pregnancy, the overall risk is still less than 2%.

Since HIV can be found in breastmilk, nursing should also be avoided.

Condoms.

05-Avoid Sharing Needles.

The rate of HIV among people who inject drugs (PWIDs) is high. Studies suggest that anywhere from 20% to 40% of PWIDs are infected due to the shared use of needles or syringes.

And, it's not only PWIDSs who are at risk. Their sexual partners may also be at risk, particularly if they are unaware of their partner's drug use.

Government-sponsored free needle exchange programs are available in many states to prevent the spread of HIV and other bloodborne infections (like hepatitis C). Clean needle programs have been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of HIV among PWIDs by reducing the risk of needle-sharing.

06-PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis)

PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) means taking medicine to prevent HIV after a possible exposure. PEP should be used only in emergency situations and must be started within 72 hours after a recent possible exposure to HIV.

07-PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis)

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a prevention strategy in which the daily dose of HIV medications, known as antiretrovirals, can reduce your risk of getting HIV by as much as 99%.

Apretude is a newer PrEP option that does not involve taking a daily pill. It is given as an injection administered every two months to the uninfected partner and has been shown to greatly reduce infection risk.

PrEP is recommended for people at high risk of infection, such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and couples in a serodiscordant relationship (in which one partner has HIV and the other doesn't).

PrEP can be used by anyone at risk of HIV who wants to reduce their odds of infection.

Symptoms

The symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary, depending on the phase of infection.

Primary infection (Acute HIV)

Some people infected by HIV develop a flu-like illness within 2 to 4 weeks after the virus enters the body. This illness, known as primary (acute) HIV infection, may last for a few weeks.

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

These symptoms can be so mild that you might not even notice them. However, the amount of virus in your bloodstream (viral load) is quite high at this time. As a result, the infection spreads more easily during primary infection than during the next stage.

Clinical latent infection (Chronic HIV)

In this stage of infection, HIV is still present in the body and in white blood cells. However, many people may not have any symptoms or infections during this time.

This stage can last for many years if you're not receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). Some people develop more severe disease much sooner.

Symptomatic HIV infection

As the virus continues to multiply and destroy your immune cells — the cells in your body that help fight off germs — you may develop mild infections or chronic signs and symptoms such as:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Swollen lymph nodes — often one of the first signs of HIV infection
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Oral yeast infection (thrush)
• Shingles (herpes zoster)
• Pneumonia

Progression to AIDS

Access to better antiviral treatments has dramatically decreased deaths from AIDS worldwide, even in resource-poor countries. Thanks to these life-saving treatments, most people with HIV in the U.S. today don't develop AIDS. Untreated, HIV typically turns into AIDS in about 8 to 10 years.

When AIDS occurs, your immune system has been severely damaged. You'll be more likely to develop diseases that wouldn't usually cause illness in a person with a healthy immune system. These are called opportunistic infections or opportunistic cancers.

The signs and symptoms of some of these infections may include:

• Sweats
• Chills
• Recurring fever
• Chronic diarrhea
• Swollen lymph glands
• Persistent white spots or unusual lesions on your tongue or in your mouth
• Persistent, unexplained fatigue
• Weakness
• Weight loss
• Skin rashes or bumps