April 23, 2018 BY imani leave a comment
You pretty much know the facts when it comes to HIV, right? Well, you might be falsely confident: A study of almost 2,000 people published in BMC Public Health found that almost half had incorrect knowledge about HIV transmission and AIDS. Worse, men were more likely than women to have the wrong info.
The upshot? It’s time to re-familiarize yourself with the virus.
In short, HIV can be dangerous because it attacks the immune system hard. “HIV kills a particular kind of immune cell called CD4 T cells, which, once it’s killed enough of them, makes us vulnerable to getting infections and cancers,” says Stacey Rizza, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic.
Left untreated, HIV can progress into AIDS. The disease is something we should all have a solid understanding of, too, since anyone can get it. Here are six things you didn’t know about your risk of transmission.
1. HIV Does Not Discriminate
Though gay and bisexual men do have the largest number of new HIV diagnoses in the United States, anyone can be infected with the virus — women, older people, and heterosexual people included, notes Rizza.“It’s still very common, unfortunately, in men who have sex with men, and that population continues to be at the highest risk for HIV,” she says. “But essentially, everybody else is at risk as well.”
That’s why Rizza suggests always using condoms — and if you reach a point of monogamy in a relationship, make sure you and your partner are tested for HIV (and show each other the results) before deciding whether or not to stop using protection.
2. Just Because You Don’t Have Symptoms Doesn’t Mean You’re HIV-negative
Don’t feel sick? Many people with HIV don’t. “Most people who get HIV may have what feels like a viral illness at the beginning, kind of like the flu or a cold; others feel nothing at all,” Rizza says. “People can live with HIV for years or even decades with no knowledge that they’ve been infected.”