An HIV/AIDS Primer & Facts

HIV/AIDS continues to claim lives around the globe but has had a particularly devastating effect in sub-Saharan Africa where there are about 13 million children who lost their parents to the disease.

What Is HIV/AIDS?

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes the Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus (AIDS).

HIV damages and destroys the body’s immune system, making it difficult to fight off viruses and bacteria, which makes it easier for infections and other illnesses including cancers, to develop.

The term AIDS means the later stages of an HIV infection, so both terms are used to describe different stages of the same disease.

How It’s Spread

• unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal, oral)
• shared needles or equipment for injecting drugs
• unsterilized needles for tattooing, skin piercing or acupuncture
• pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding (from an HIV-infected mother to her infant)
• occupational exposure in health care settings

It’s Not Spread By

• casual, everyday contact
• shaking hands, hugging, kissing
• coughs, sneezes
• giving blood
• swimming pools, toilet seats
• sharing eating utensils, water fountains
• mosquitoes, other insects, or animals.

Prevention

There is no cure for HIV/AIDS, but there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself and they include:

WEARING A CONDOM: If you’re allergic to latex use a plastic condom. Only use water-based lubricants as oil-based products can eat away at a condom and cause it to break. If you don’t have a male condom, use a female condom. If you’re having oral sex use a dental dam or a condom.

MAKE SURE YOUR PARTNER HAS BEEN TESTED FOR HIV

DON’T SHARE NEEDLES

GET SCREENED: Women should have an annual pap test and men who engage in anal sex should be screened regularly.

If You’re HIV-Positive:

PRACTICE SAFE SEX: Use condoms for vaginal and anal sex and dental dams or condoms for oral sex. If you use sexual devices, don’t share them.

INFORM YOUR FORMER AND CURRENT PARTNER(S)

DON’T SHARE NEEDLES

DON’T DONATE BLOOD OR ORGANS

DON’T SHARE RAZOR BLADES OR TOOTHBRUSHES

Information courtesy Health Canada and the Mayo Clinic.

Treatment

ARV stands for antiretroviral and refers to a type of drug that works by interfering with the
replication of HIV. The four classes of antiretroviral drugs currently available are:

-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs), which block the replication of HIV
by interfering with a protein called Reverse Transcriptase (RT), essential for the
reproduction of HIV;

-Non-nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs), which also block RT, but in a
slightly different way than NRTIs;

-Protease Inhibitors (PIs), which block the function of a protein called protease, essential
for HIV reproduction; and

-Entry Inhibitors, which block HIV from entering target cells. There is currently just one
licensed entry inhibitor available – a fusion inhibitor – though other types are currently
being tested.

Combination Therapy is a course of antiretroviral treatment that involves two or more
ARVs in combination.

HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment) is a modality of antiretroviral treatment
that involves the use of three or more ARVs. HAART interferes with the virus’ ability to
replicate, which allows the body’s immune system to maintain or recover its ability to
produce the white blood cells necessary to respond to opportunistic infections.

Courtesy of the 2006 International AIDS Conference

Here are some facts about HIV/AIDS:

• There are 38,600,000 people living with AIDS around the world
• There are 60,000 people in Canada living with the disease – 49,400 men and 9,600 women

Courtesy of globalhealthfacts.org

Alarming Trends

• Every six and a half seconds, another person is infected with HIV.
• Every ten seconds, one person dies of AIDS-related illness.
• There are an estimated 11,200 new HIV infections and nearly 8,000 deaths every day.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world that has been most severely impacted by HIV (in terms of the percentage of the region’s population that is infected). This is followed by the Caribbean.
• Only one-tenth of the world’s population lives in sub-Saharan Africa, yet almost 64 percent of those infected with HIV live in this region.
• India and China, the world’s most populous countries, are experiencing rapid growth of HIV in certain subpopulations and geographic areas.
• More than two-thirds of those infected with HIV from Asia live in India.
• There has been a major increase in HIV infection in Eastern Europe and the nations of the former Soviet Union, a region which has among the fastest rates of new infections in the world.
• The majority of people living with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe live in the Ukraine or the Russian Federation.
• The total number of people living with HIV continues to rise in high-income countries. In the US, for example, HIV prevalence reached its highest level to date in 2005.
• Even with a 3 percent increase in school enrolment, over the past four years, there has continued to remain a gender gap in education. An estimated 113 million school-age children are not currently in school, 54 pecent of which are girls. In high prevalence countries, girls’ enrolment in school has decreased in the past decade. Girls are often taken out of school to care for sick relatives or to look after young siblings.
• Access to basic prevention services is inadequate. Less than one in five people at risk for HIV infection has access to prevention services.
• As of December 2005, an estimated 20 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries (1.3 million) received appropriate HIV treatment (including antiretroviral medicines).

Courtesy of the International AIDS Conference 2006.