Educate and Protect Yourself from HIV

MisterCMT

Disclaimer: I am not a medical persona nor a medical expert, and naything i a, sharing right now is all about what I have read and watched from the internet and all views expressed in this blog is based on my research and not to be taken as a substitute to expert medical advice.  When in doubt please ask your doctor.

I have received email from my readers to write a blog about so many issues and topics, and information about HIV is on of them.  So I will try my best to write a post about it and how I understand most of the information I have read about the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS).

HIV is a deadly virus that causes the condition of AIDS and it kills.  Since there is no cure yet so prevention is the best defense, it is important to know facts so you can protect yourself and stop it from spreading.

Remember: It is not easy to get HIV

There has been so many questions about HIV/AIDS, and I guess the best question we must answer first is:

—How can we protect ourselves from getting infected with HIV?

We can protect ourselves from getting infected by;

  • Abstaining from sex.
  • Using condoms when having sex.
  • When giving oral sex make sure that you do not have open cuts wounds or sore in your mouth.
  • Do not let the semen stay in your mouth, either you ask your partner not to ejaculate in your mouth, spit it out or just swallow it, most medical site doctors says that saliva and the acid in the stomach actually kills the virus.
  • Make sure when you are giving oral sex, you did not brush or floss 2 hours before the sexual activity.
  • Stop when the condom breaks.
  • Do not share needles
  • If the mother is infected she must ask the doctor and give the baby a formula instead.

Routes of infectionOne can get infected with HIV when there is an actual or direct transmission from the three (3) body fluids that carries the virus.

— What are direct transmissions?

  1. Unprotected sex whether vaginal, anal or the less risky oral sex.
  2. Using or sharing infected needles.
  3. Vertical transmission like mother passing it to her baby through birth of breastfeeding.

— What are high risk fluids?

  1. Sexual fluids (semen, vaginal fluids)
  2. Blood
  3. Breast milk

— What are the no risk body fluids?

  1. Saliva
  2. mucus
  3. Sweat
  4. Tears
  5. Body waste like stool and urine
  • you can not get infected by kissing, saliva is not a high risk fluid.
  • you can not get infected by hugging someone.
  • you can not get infected by shaking someone’s hand.
  • you can not get infected from using the toilet.
  • you can not get infected when someone is sneezing or coughing on you.
  • you can not get infected from animals and insects — mosquitoes only suck blood and do not pass or inject blood.

Rememeber:  HIV needs a contained environment and fluids, like inside the human body to live, and it can not survive in the air and outside the human body.

  • unless you have fresh open cut or wounds, HIV can not penetrate your body and get into your blood stream.
  • you can not get HIV from the air like a common cold.
  • you can not get it from the food you eat or whatever your drink or touch.
  • Semen that leaked at the bottom of the condom can not put you at risk, remember the virus can not survive in the air and it is only powerful when it is inside the body.
  • you are not at risk when you touch or someone ejaculates on your skin,  Our skin is like a thick wall that protects us from the virus, unless again… there is a fresh open cut or wounds.

Symptoms can be very deceiving, the same physical signs like fever, couching, muscle pain, skin rashes maybe visible but it does not mean you have HIV unless you get yourself tested.

People living with HIV sometimes are healthier than people who have negative status because the take good care of their body and health, because they already know that anything can get the sick easily.

90% of people who are infected with HIV does not even know that they are infected.  So anybody can get infected with HIV particularly those who already have sexual experiences and not practicing safe sex or have been using intravenous drugs.

undetectableHIV is now treatable, so as long as they take their medication like Antiretroviral Drugs that lowers the viral load (undetectable status) religiously, people with HIV can live the normal life span and lessen the risk of passing it to someone.

Know the facts and share them with anybody.  Love not hate, if you know someone or a loved one who is living with HIV, as long as you know the facts and get yourself educated, you will be at NO RISK.

I hope we will be more loving and understanding about people living with HIV/AIDS. Most of them got infected, like those who are working in the medical fields by accident, those who got raped or simply just by the negligence from people performing medical assistance.

Primary source:

Watch TeachAIDS on YouTube

Read all about HIV/AIDS on Mayo Clinic

Safe sex and HIV prevention from The Body and ask the experts.