Yes. Only if the instruments used are not sterile.

Yes. Only if the instruments used are not sterile.

YES.

HIV is present to some extent in the breast milk of an HIV positive woman (See Question #41). Yet because breast-feeding has many advantages for the infant’s health that outweigh the disadvantages of a possible HIV infection through this source, the World Health Organization strongly recommends that an HIV-positive mother continue to breast feed since the concentration of the virus is minimal in milk and unlikely to cause HIV-infection to the breast fed child.

All medical personnel are humans and so are at risk of HIV infection from all the ways mentioned in Question #13. However they risk infection when dealing with blood and other body fluids. Hence the need for such measures as using gloves, masks and protective glasses when handling such potentially infective material.

No. The saliva (spit) of an HIV-Positive person contains very few virus particles and is weakly infective. Even mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and deep kissing (wet kissing or French kissing) are not dangerous. Theoretically, the risk of transmission increases if there are ulcers or bleeding gums. The instruction here would be, 'Avoid kissing only if you have any kind of open sore or wound inside or around your mouth.’

Yes, if the blood, semen, or vaginal fluid of an infected person come in contact with the bleeding gums or mouth sores of the other person during oral sex. While it is definitely less risky than penetrative sex, using a condom during oral sex reduces even this risk of HIV infection.

If a boy or a girl, or a grown man or woman, is stimulating his or her owns genital organs he or she is perfectly safe from getting HIV. Also, if partners stimulate each other with their hands they are not exposed to the HIV virus, if there are no open cuts.

When homosexual activity with an HIV infected person involves penetration, the HIV may be spread. A common homosexual activity is intercourse. Penetrative anal intercourse is especially dangerous because the lining of the rectum is more delicate than that of the vagina and hence tears more easily.

Yes, not only are such people at greater risk of HIV infection, they also face the risk of all other STD. So also, STDs infected persons have a great risk of catching AIDS.

Women are at greater risk of HIV infection than men because semen contains larger concentrations of HIV than do vaginal fluids, and semen stays for a longer time in the vagina.

No. Chlorine is an extremely effective means of destroying the HIV. Even if the pool is not chlorinated it would be impossible to transmit HIV through a swimming pool. This is because there would not be a high enough level of the virus to transmit the infection.

First, the mosquito does not inject blood into the body of a person but draws blood into the body of a person. So HIV infected blood from one person cannot be injected into another. The mosquito cannot act as a flying syringe. Second, the amount of blood on the mosquito’s proboscis (the elongated mouth part of the mosquito) would anyway be too small to transmit the virus. Third, HIV, unlike the malarial parasite, cannot replicate itself within the mosquito’s body system. Last, and most important, if mosquitoes were responsible for transmitting HIV then HIV infection would be widespread in all age groups. However, the greatest number of HIV-positive people falls into the sexually active age of 15 and 40 years. Besides, studies show that except for the spouses (the sexual partners) or the children, other members from the household of an HIV infected person are no more likely to be infected than members from households without an HIV-positive person.

No. The virus is fragile and will not be able to survive the heat generated by cooking or the exposure to air. Sharing toilets, clothes, towels, food, utensils, furniture etc. does not spread AIDS.

Ear piercing can only spread HIV if the needle or wire that is used for the piercing is contaminated, so the risk of transmission is low. Everyone has the right to insist that the needle or the wire being used is sterilised before the actual use.

Tattooing can only spread HIV if the instruments used are contaminated with HIV infected blood, so the risk of transmission is low. Everyone has the right to insist that the instruments being used are sterilized before the actual use.

Injecting drugs into one’s body does not spread HIV, though by itself this is a dangerous habit. However, many drug users often share their needles without sterilising them in between use. It is a habit which helps to transmit HIV.

HIV cannot be spread through casual contract a such as touching, holding hands, body contract in crowded public places, playing or working together, sharing food or vessels, kissing or mosquito bites.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus cannot infect Animals. Some animals do develop immune deficiencies similar to AIDS (e.g., the simian immunodeficiency virus affects monkeys, the feline immunodeficiency virus affects cats and the bovine immunodeficiency virus affects cows). These are not infectious to humans.

After the HIV enters the person’s body, the person may show no signs and symptoms of AIDS for 5 to 10 years. As the person’s immune system starts failing, signs and symptoms of AIDS develop. These can be:

• Weight loss greater than 10 percent of body weight;
• Fever for longer than one month;
• Diarrhoea for longer than one month (on and off or all the time);
• Persistent and severe fatigue

There are so many different causes for fever, headache, diarrhoea and weight loss, so there is no cause to worry. However, if you have had unprotected sex with many people or with a person who has had many sexual partners, or if you have shared needles when injecting yourself with drugs, it is advisable to go to a recognized testing centre, and get yourself tested for HIV.

No. The only sure way to know if a person has been infected with HIV is to conduct an HIV antibody test (ELISA or Western Blot Tests).

The AIDS test is a test for the presence of antibodies.  It is therefore actually an HIV-antibody test. The main antibody tests used to detect the presence of HIV in a person are the ELISA (Enzyme linked immunosorbent Assay) and the Western Blot tests. After a person has been infected with HIV, it takes 3 to 5 months for the antibodies to show up in a blood test.

Being HIV-positive means that the person has developed antibodies prepared by his/her body against the virus.

A person can get tested for HIV at any medical centre that provides these facilities Testing should be carried out by trained medical and paramedical staff, and the person should receive counselling both before and after the test.

Most babies of HIV infected women receive HIV antibodies from their mother. So any antibody test will have a positive result regardless of whether the child is really infected or not. For a true test result one would have to wait until 6 to 9 months after the birth of the baby.

As HIV infection destroys and reduces the number of T helper of cells, the body's defence system, is unable to fight off infections of other disease germs. Thus the person succumbs to TB, diarrhoea, pneumonia, and certain types of cancers. These opportunistic infections ultimately lead to the person’s death.

Opportunistic infections are those infections that affect the body when the HIV infection reduces the number of T-helper cells. They include Kaposi’s sarcoma (or skin cancer), herpes zoster and pneumocystics carinii pneumonia among other usually rare diseases.

HIV affects children much sooner than adults because they are small and they develop AIDS earlier than adults. If a child is born with HIV infection then it would not probably survive beyond 5 years.

Theoretically HIV can stay alive in a dead body for 30-40 days provided the body is placed in an air-conditioned morgue. HIV has been known to live for more than a week in the bodies ’ of  individuals who have died of AIDS and who are immediately put into cold storage. So, much care and universal precautions need to be taken regarding the disposal of dead bodies.

• Once a person is infected with HIV, there is no treatment to free him from HIV-infection. There is at present no cure for AIDS.
  
  
• The HIV-positive person is often unaware of being infected and is likely to spread this infection to other people.

No, So far, scientists have not had much success in developing a vaccine against AIDS.  It may take some years before they are successful. A few drugs like AZT (zidovudine) are available which slow down the action of the HIV in the body and so prolong life for some time. They are very expensive and have severe side effects.

No, because HIV is present not only in the blood but also in other tissues and organs like the bone narrow, liver, brain, spleen etc. so HIV cannot be completely eliminated by such an exchange transfusion.

Most babies of HIV infected women receive HIV antibodies from their mother. So any antibody test will have a positive result regardless of whether the child is really infected or not. For a true test result one would have to wait until 6 to 9 months after the birth of the baby.

Condoms are one of the ‘safe sex’ measures for a person seeking to protect herself or himself from HIV. If used properly, it is quite an effective measure. Condoms are also effective at preventing transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases.  It should be remembered that the condoms are not 100% safe.

Today we speak of high-risk behaviour rather than high-risk groups. We refrain from banning prostitution and homosexuality because to do so would be to pass judgment on those people who do not follow a prescribed lifestyle. Also to ban prostitution and homosexuality would mean to blind us to the very real possibility of acquiring HIV infection through other means. This would be a short-term measure which would not only violate the rights of certain people but would also, in the long run, prove counter-productive to the effort of preventing AIDS.

Nothing! a person with AIDS is a person just like any other except that she or he has an incurable disease. They deserve neither our pity nor our scorn. Unless we plan to be intimately involved with such a person we need not worry about getting infected through them since HIV is only spread the way mentioned above.

HIV is spread in only one of three ways. If one is not at risk of HIV transmission through these means then one need not worry. However, the best vaccine is responsibility for one’s behaviour.

World Aids Day is a day on which people the world over have a chance to review the past year, to remember those who have died, and to celebrate the living. It is celebrated on 1 December each year. It may be an opportunity for a parade or show which acknowledges both life and work with HIV/AIDS. It dates back to 1988 when a world summit of health ministers called for a spirit of social tolerance and a greater exchange of information on HIV/AIDS.

When Dr Jonathan Mann was asked why 1 December was chosen as AIDS Day, he gave various reasons for the choice.

• It had to a date easy to remember like 1st or 30th.
• It had to avoid coinciding with any nation’s day of celebration.
• It should not be very close to holidays.
• 1 December satisfied all these criteria and hence was chosen as World AIDS Day.

There are several theories regarding the origin of the HIV, but so far there is no scientific agreement on any one of them. The first case of an HIV infected person was found in 1981 in U.S.A. Three groups of scientists are credited with discovering the link between HIV and AIDS: first in 1983 was Luc Mountaineer’s group at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, followed by Robert Gallo's group at the National Cancer Institute, and then a group headed by Jay Levy at University College San Francisco. However, there is no scientific agreement on how and where HIV originated.

AIDS is a dreaded disease because:

• Once a person is infected with HIV, there is no treatment to free him from HIV-infection.
• There is at present no cure for AIDS. An HIV-positive person is often unaware of being infected and is likely to spread this infection to other people