HIV - cause, symptoms and treatment
Written by:
GU doctor
Published: 07/11/2017
Edited by: Laura Burgess
HIV stands for 'Human Immunodeficieny Virus', and is a virus that affects the immune system. People who have this virus are said to have HIV or be HIV-positive. Sexual health physician Dr Nneka Nwokolo discuses the difference between HIV and AIDS.....
How is HIV caught?
HIV can be caught in several ways. The most common way is from having sex without a condom with another HIV-positive person who isn't on treatment. However, it is also possible for an HIV-positive mother who isn't on treatment to pass it on to her baby during pregnancy or breastfeeding and to catch it from an HIV-positive blood transfusion or organ transplant, or from sharing needles with an HIV-positive person during intravenous drug use. HIV cannot be caught from kissing, holding hands, sharing cups or other eating utensils, or sharing the same bed or bath, or indeed any other social contact.
What are the symptoms?
The majority of people with HIV don't have any symptoms until their immune systems have become badly damaged. This may take several years. For this reason, it's important for a person who thinks they might have been at risk to be tested for HIV, even if they feel well. Once the immune system has started to weaken, certain skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema might occur more commonly as well as chest infections and yeast infections, such as oral or vaginal thrush. Other more serious illnesses may occur as the immune system becomes more damaged.
Who is most at risk of contracting HIV?
Anyone who has ever had sex with another person without a condom is at risk of having caught HIV. Some groups of people, such as gay men and people from countries with high rates of HIV may be more likely to have a HIV infection than the general population, but anyone can catch it. It can be as easy as just having sex once without a condom with someone who is HIV-positive (who might not even know it).
How is it treated?
HIV is now very easy to treat. In the UK and most of the western world, treatment is so effective that people with HIV can expect to live a normal life and have a normal life expectancy. Most people will only need to take one or two pills once or twice a day, with few to know side-effects, which are prescribed by a sexual health physician. Being on treatment stops the immune system from being damaged, and in people on successful treatment, the virus disappears (this is called having an undetectable viral load). The best thing about having an undetectable viral load is that lots of research have shown that an HIV-positive person stops being infectious and CANNOT pass the virus on to someone else.This means that women can't pass the virus on to their babies and an HIV-negative partner can't catch the virus if they have sex with an HIV-positive person on effective treatment.
HIV vs AIDS
'HIV' refers to the virus, but also to having the infection, i.e. a person with the virus 'has HIV' or 'is HIV-positive'. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the name given to illnesses that occur in a person with HIV when their immune system is so badly damaged that they can't fight off infections that a person with a healthy immune system would easily be able to. AIDS is usually seen in people who have had HIV for a long time (often many years) without knowing it because they haven't had a test. Modern HIV treatments are so effective that we see very few people with AIDS nowadays. However, we recommend that people have an HIV test as part of a sexual health check-up at the beginning and end of a relationship to make sure everything is ok.