THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT HIV & AIDS

FACT 01: HIV and AIDS are not the same thing.

HIV is the virus that is passed from one human to another - HIV is the abbreviation for the official name: Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is possible to be HIV Positive (meaning you have the virus in your body) and look and feel perfectly well for years and years. Your body's natural defenses keep HIV under control until eventually they get worn out and can't fight any longer. Once you are HIV Positive, it is possible for you to infect another person with the virus, but there are lots of ways you can prevent this from happening. Good nutrition and regular wellness care gives people living with HIV every reason to expect long lives ahead of them.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the medical term for a whole collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the damage to the immune system caused by HIV. The late stage of the condition leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors.

ARV (antiretroviral) treatments for AIDS and HIV can decelerate the virus's progression, there is currently no known cure... so HIV is categorised as a chronic managable disease (like diabetes).

FACT 02: HIV Positive mean you had unprotected sex?

Not true. HIV is passed from one human to another through bodily fluids: blood, semen and vaginal fluids. Unborn babies can be infected from their HIV Positive mother's milk (although there are treatments that can prevent this). In rare cases, HIV can be passed by coming into contact with infected blood (for example, through sharing needles or via infected blood transfusions). While unprotected sex is one of the most common ways the virus has spread in southern Africa, it is not the only way one can contract the disease.

FACT 03: You are most infectious in the first 2 - 6 weeks after you have contracted the virus.

This is because HIV is like a ninja, raging through your body undetected by your body's antibodies so they haven't started fighting it yet. It is during this "window period" when rapid HIV tests show you are HIV Negative (because the test asks your antibodies if they are fighting HIV - which they haven't seen yet) that the virus is most commonly spread from one partner to another.

FACT 04: More sex partners equals more risk. But the more these partners "overlap", the significantly higher your risk becomes.

In South Africa, HIV is commonly spread through sex. If you have unprotected sex (meaning without a condom unless you are 100% medically sure your partner is not infected) then you put yourself at risk. The more partners you do this with, the higher your risk. Recent research indicates that because the window period has significantly higher infection risk, having sex with two or more people within this 2 - 6 week period dramatically increases your chances of infection (and of infecting other if you become infected). So here's a tip: to decrease your risks, take a 6 week break between partners (and always use condoms!)

FACT 05: Drunk sex is far riskier than sober sex.

There's a reason why you're not allowed to drive a car drunk. Your judgments and reactions are impaired - which make you a hazard to yourself and others. Same goes for sex. It's too easy to convince yourself that just this once having unprotected sex is fine... or improperly using condoms... or... well you get the point! Hangovers go away; HIV doesn't.