National Institutes of Health NIH

It?s been quite thirty years since a sickness currently known as AIDS was 1st recognized within the us. Back then, it absolutely was thought-about a death sentence. No treatments were accessible, its cause was unknown, and folks usually died inside some months once being diagnosed. Today, folks infected with HIV?the virus that causes AIDS?can live full, healthy lives, in massive half as a result of medicines and different discoveries created with agency support.

 The terms HIV and AIDS are often confusing, as a result of they?re connected however totally different. HIV may be a virus that harms your system by invasive so destroying your infection-fighting white blood cells. AIDS is that the finish of associate untreated HIV infection. folks with AIDS will have a spread of symptoms, as a result of their weakened immune systems place them in danger for dangerous infections and cancers.

 HIV virus passes from one person to a different through bound body fluids, corresponding to blood and body fluid. concerning ninetieth of latest HIV infections within the U.S. occur throughout sex. Shared needles and injection drug use is that the second most typical route of infection. HIV can even unfold from associate infected mother to her newborn. HIV isn?t unfold through casual contact, corresponding to shaking hands, hugging, sneezing, sharing utensils, or mistreatment bogs.

 Today, by taking a mixture of HIV-fighting medicines (called antiretroviral therapy), fewer Americans with HIV square measure developing AIDS. and a few HIV infections will currently be prevented by taking daily medications (called PrEP).

 as a result of these advances, some folks might imagine that there?s no use to worry concerning HIV and AIDS. however nothing may well be away from the reality. Nationwide, quite one million folks square measure infected with HIV, and every year over fifty,000 a lot of become recently infected. concerning one in seven Americans World Health Organization have HIV don?t even notice they?re infected, in order that they is also unwittingly spreading the virus to others. the matter is even a lot of severe in developing nations, particularly in components of Africa.

 even if treatments and interference ways will keep HIV in restraint, there?s still no cure and no immunizing agent to stop HIV infections. That?s why NIH-funded scientists still rummage around for new, simpler ways in which to halt HIV infections.

 "If you get a diagnosing of HIV infection, and you start antiretroviral medical care in a very timely fashion, before your system becomes well compromised, your prognosis is superb," says Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, NIH?s communicable disease chief, World Health Organization 1st began treating AIDS patients within the early Eighties. Studies show that with early treatment, HIV levels could become thus low that the virus becomes undetectable within the blood. That lengthens life and reduces the danger of spreading HIV to others. "If those that square measure infected stay medical care, they will save their own lives and conjointly facilitate keep HIV from infecting their sexual partners," Fauci says.

 Keeping HIV infections in restraint needs early diagnosing and taking daily HIV medications always. notwithstanding it?s undetectable within the blood, once a person?s been infected with HIV, it remains forever hidden within the body. "HIV has the power to integrate itself into your cells and conceal in associate inactive kind, known as a reservoir," says Fauci. though medicines will keep virus levels low, they don?t filter out the infectious agent reservoir. thus if treatment lapses, HIV comes out of activity and rushes back to the blood.

 for a few folks, maintaining with this daily health programme are often a challenge. Nationwide, fewer than one in three folks with HIV takes antiretroviral medicines frequently enough to cut back the virus to undetectable levels. That?s why in progress NIH-funded studies square measure making and evaluating medications which may be taken less usually, corresponding to once a month. This approach are tested in a very massive clinical test expected to start in Africa later this year. different approaches that don?t rely on daily anti-HIV medicine also are being tested.

 analysis over the past few decades has known preventive ways that work: limit your range of sexual partners, ne'er share needles, and use condoms properly and often. agency is additionally exploring new ways in which to stop HIV infections, as well as experimental vaccines.

 One preventive approach for folks at hyperbolic risk for HIV infection involves taking a daily dose of associate antiretroviral drug. "In terms of interference, a game-changer that we?ve got immediately is pre-exposure prevention, or PrEP," says Dr. Carl W. Dieffenbach, World Health Organization heads NIH?s world analysis efforts in HIV/AIDS. "This strategy protects you from obtaining infected with HIV if you're taking the medication daily."