HIV Stuff
A’ight—some people want to have fun when they get information and some people just want the facts. If you want the facts, check out the info below. If you want to play a game, check out Risk It All! Same stuff, just more fun!
Also, we didn't make this one but if you want to watch an animated video about HIV and how it works, go to www.vir.us and check it out.
Pick the one that works for you.
Just in case you're wondering--There is no cure for HIV/AIDS.
So before we bore you with the information, we figured we tell you about testing:
HIV Testing:
There are two ways you can get tested--anonymously when they just give you a number and don't get any of your personal information, and confidentially when they get some personal information like your name, address and phone number. Either way, they can't share any information they get with anybody without your permission or in case it turns out you do have HIV, they can share the information with the Department of Health so they can keep track of how many people are getting HIV in certain areas or how many young people are getting HIV or that kind of statistical information. That's how we know how many people have HIV. We used some of those statistics for the Statistically Speaking page on our website.
There are different types of HIV tests that they use to figure out if you have HIV or not. They all look for antibodies, the way your body reacts when you get HIV. They can do a blood test, like in a doctor's office or in a clinic, and then you come back in about a week and get your results. Or they can do rapid testing, where you can get your preliminary results in about 20 minutes. Preliminary means it might be HIV, but they have to confirm it by doing another test. Sometimes you might test preliminary positive and it turns out that something else caused the test to react that way--things like being pregnant with twins or Lupus Disease. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, so that's why they do another test to confirm that it's HIV. The rapid test can be either a blood test--where they take a little tiny drop of blood about O that big or they can do an oral swab test. The confirmatory test might be something called OraSure. It's an oral swab too, but that one has to be sent to a lab and you have to come back for your results.
No matter what kind of test you take, in New York, you have to sign a form that gives them permission to do the test.
Risk Reduction:
We have a whole bunch of information on our website to help you figure out ways to keep from getting HIV. Check out our site, play our games, and figure out what might work for you to lower your risk for HIV and other STDs.
OK, so now you want the facts? Just click on any of the questions below to learn more....
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus
- It’s a HUMAN virus, so you can’t get it from an animal or mosquito, only another human who has it.
- IMMUNO—refers to the immune system, which is the system that helps your body defend against viruses, bacteria, fungi, diseases, etc.
- DEFICIENCY means lacking. HIV attacks the immune system and leaves it weak and open to diseases, bacteria, viruses, etc.
- VIRUS—means that there is NO CURE. Doctors can give you medications to treat symptoms, but not cure the disease. We do not know how to cure any virus.
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
- ACQUIRED means you have to actually do something in order to get it—in this case have unprotected (no condom or dental dam) sex or share a needle (for drug use, tattoos, insulin, steroids, anything) with somebody who has HIV.
- IMMUNE AND DEFICIENCY were described above.
- SYNDROME—this refers to the diseases and illnesses that take advantage of a weak immune system. One of the ways that an individual gets an AIDS diagnosis is by getting one of the illnesses or diseases.
The main Body Fluids that DO transmit HIV
- Blood
- Semen (NOT sperm)—semen is the body fluid that comes out when a man ejaculates (cums).
- Vaginal fluids—vaginal fluid (she cum) is a liquid created by the female body that lubricates the vagina and lips of the vagina
- Breast milk
The main Body Fluids the do NOT transmit HIV
- Saliva (spit) does not transmit HIV, unless of course you’re willing to drink gallons of spit with HIV in it
- Mucus (snot)
- Urine (pee)
- Vomit (puke)
- Feces (poop—liquid or solid)
- Sweat
- Tears
- Pus—this doesn’t transmit, but there might be blood behind the pus, so be careful
99% of HIV IS transmitted
- By having unprotected anal (butt), vaginal, and oral sex with someone who has HIV
- By sharing needles OF ANY KIND with somebody who has HIV
- 1% of HIV IS transmitted:
- Mother-to-child—that is from a mother who has HIV to a baby. Most of this happens during birth (mostly because there is lots of blood getting into baby’s mouth/nose/eyes etc. during the birth, and because baby has a weaker immune system) but there are medications mom can take while pregnant to reduce the risk and baby can get medications right after he/she is born to reduce the risk even more
- Skin, tissue, organ, and sperm donations, but these are tested before being used to reduce the risk greatly
- Occupational exposure—things like accidental needle sticks in a hospital or medical setting.
- Blood donations, but blood is tested thoroughly before being used to reduce the risk greatly. Blood donations includes things like getting a blood transfusion or getting blood product from another person.
How HIV is NOT transmitted
- Abstinence from both sex and drugs/alcohol is a no-brainer ways to not get HIV
- Kissing, mackin’, swappin’ spit, suckin’ face, tonsil hockey, tongue wrestling, making out, smooching, frenchin’, snogging, lip locking, or any other way you put it, this is NOT how you get HIV
- Hugging. Hug away!
- Sharing food, drinks, utensils, plates, etc. Nope, can’t get it that way. You also can’t get it from sharing clothes or bedding or anything like that with somebody who has HIV.
- Mosquito bites or bites from an animal that has the virus.
- Getting sneezed/coughed on.
- Outercourse—that is engaging in sexual behavior that doesn’t a body fluid that transmits HIV going into the body of another person. If someone ejaculates on the outside of a person’s body, HIV can’t get in so there’s no risk.
- Masturbation, by your self or with another, masturbation doesn’t involve the body fluid going into another person’s body, so there’s no risk.
How HIV takes over the Immune System
Once HIV gets into the body, it starts looking for a white blood cell to sneak into. If you want to see a really scientific video about how HIV takes over the white blood cells to weaken the immune system, and how HIV medications work, check it out here.
If you want a simple explanation, read about the 3 stages in the following FAQs....
HIV - The ACUTE STAGE
- HIV gets into the body thorough one of the body fluids that transmits (blood, semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk).
- HIV meets up with a white blood cell, fuses with it, and then drops its HIV information into the cell. It becomes a host for creating more HIV.
- HIV, through a series of steps, makes copies of itself by tricking the white blood cell’s nucleus into making copies of HIV and sending them out into the body. HIV can make billions of copies every day.
- This is the start of the ACUTE Stage. The Acute Stage usually lasts about a month. There are generally NO SIGNS OR SYMPTOMS when somebody gets HIV so they probably won’t know they got HIV.
- People in the Acute Stage can pass HIV on to another person very easily, since the body doesn’t even know it has HIV for awhile and doesn’t react to HIV for awhile and it takes awhile to make an army against HIV, so there’s a LOT of HIV in the body during the Acute Stage.
HIV - The ASYMPTOMATIC STAGE
- ASYMPTOMATIC means no symptoms. In other words, can have HIV without knowing it unless they get an HIV test.
- The Asymptomatic Stage lasts an average of 7-10 years.
- The only way to know if a person has HIV is if he/she gets tested for HIV since there are no symptoms. A person must SPECIFICALLY REQUEST an HIV test; it is not part of routine blood work.
HIV - The SYMPTOMATIC STAGE
Eventually, a person will begin to experience some symptoms. This may include ongoing flu-like symptoms, a low grade fever that doesn’t go away, severe night sweats, or aching joints. These symptoms don’t go away with self-treatment with aspirin, etc. but medical care and HIV medications will help most people.
AIDS: A person is diagnosed with AIDS if one or both of the following occur.
- The person is HIV+ AND experiences one of the 25 AIDS Defining Illnesses (ADI)/ Opportunistic Infections (OI)
- The person is HIV+ AND the T-Cell (CD4) count drops to below 200 T-Cells per sample.
- The immune system uses a variety of white blood cells to fight diseases, infections, fungi, etc. T-Cells are one type of white blood cell. Another name for T-Cells is CD4 Cells. In general, a healthy person has an average of 1000 T-Cells per teaspoon of blood. If a person has less than 200 T-Cells, he/she is at an increased risk for infection/illness.
- T-Cells are “indicator cells.” Doctors use T-Cell counts to indicate how far the individual has progressed in this disease.
Once a person is diagnosed with AIDS, that person is always considered to have it, even if their T-Cell count rises to normal levels and/or they no longer have the ADI or OI.
Here’s what it looks like when you put it all together: Click Here