What do you know AIDS? 
Ten things to know about HIV / AIDS
The force of HIV / AIDS lies in ignorance of his victims. Learning about the disease and the ways in which it transmits is the only real protection against it. Paradoxically, HIV / AIDS is a disease from which he never recovers, but can be prevented hundred percent. Unfortunately, too many people feel protected from the risk of infection when in fact they know or mistakenly believe to know what is HIV / AIDS.
Here are ten facts that everyone, wherever they happen to live, should never fail to know.
1. AIDS is caused by HIV
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is a disease caused by HIV, a virus that attacks the human immune system. In people living with AIDS, the immune system is no longer able to defend the body against disease, the degenerative process continues until the patient's death due to infections so-called "opportunistic." There is no cure or a vaccine to eradicate HIV from the body.
2. HIV and AIDS are not the same thing
People who contract the HIV virus (HIV) are living with AIDS, even if they are destined to become one, except in very rare cases. Appropriately treated with medication, an HIV positive person can live very long in discrete health, but will continue to be a carrier of the virus and therefore can transmit it to other people. Only when the level of HIV infection exceeds a certain threshold, the subject is considered to be suffering from AIDS.
3. How is it transmitted the virus
HIV is transmitted through exchange of infected body fluids, at any stage of the disease. Blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk are the fluids that can transmit the virus effectively. Saliva is not among them, so it is a false belief that HIV can infect through the kiss.
4. Sexual transmission
The most common mode of HIV transmission is through sexual contact, because during an unprotected sex there is the fullest possible exchange of bodily fluids, especially when there are aggravating circumstances (injuries of the genital , venereal diseases, anal sex or violent forms of penetration). The younger girls are particularly vulnerable to infection because an immature reproductive system is physiologically more susceptible to injury and infection.
5. HIV / AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are a particular risk factor (5 to 10 times the average) of acquiring or transmitting HIV. Subjects aware of having these infections should be only safe sex (with condoms or without penetration), tell your partner and provide treatment.
6. How do I avoid infection through sexual risk
transmission of HIV / AIDS through sexual contact may be reduced if the person abstains from sex, if you have unprotected sex only with an uninfected partner, if only practice safe sex (with condoms or without penetration). Among these three methods of prevention, the only absolutely certain is, for obvious reasons, abstinence.
7. HIV / AIDS and drug
The people taking injection drugs are at high risk of contracting HIV / AIDS through sharing of contaminated needles and syringes, a practice still widespread in some areas and causing numerous infections each year. The risk factor is high enough to induce advised to have always protected sex with a partner who uses injection drugs. For the same reasons as needles, razors, surgical instruments or equipment to perform piercings or tattoos that have come into contact with infected blood and have not been sterilized can carry the HIV virus.
8. Who to contact
If a person suspected of having contracted the virus, the only way to ensure it is carried out a test for HIV at the health facility equipped. If the subject is a minor, must know that consulting a health care professional and testing in full respect of privacy is a right recognized by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, be sure to be HIV positive or not is an ethical duty towards people who may be unknowingly infected.
9. HIV and human contacts daily
HIV does not infect you with everyday social behavior. It is totally risk free to shake hands with an infected person, embrace it, share it with food, clothing or other tools (except those who may have had occasional contact with the blood such as razors and toothbrushes). A person with HIV does not transmit the virus through coughing, sneezing, or swimming in the pool. It is also the unfounded belief that mosquitoes can convey HIV stinging in succession sick and healthy people.
10. Solidarity and humanity
The last and not least among the things to remember is that every person deserves compassion and solidarity. Discriminate a human being because he has contracted HIV / AIDS, is a member of a family where there are infected people, or belongs to a category at risk, constitutes a violation of individual human rights and is a sign of profound immaturity. The silence and fear that surround HIV / AIDS because the disease can kill it.
