End: Helpful Facts About HIV/AIDS

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Facts about the manageability of caring for those with HIV:

• HIV is now considered a chronic illness, rather than a terminal disease.
• HIV+ individuals who are receiving treatment can live INDEFINITELY without developing AIDS.
• HIV+ individuals who have access to treatment can live close to normal life expectancies.
• HIV+ children can grow up, get married, have babies, etc. 
• With prevention medication, HIV+ mothers do not have to pass the virus along to their biological children.  (However, one article said that they should not breastfeed. -- if this is no longer the case, please correct me!)
• The HIV specialist we met with has actually testified in court that it was medical malpractice when an HIV+ mother in the U.S. did pass HIV along to her baby.  She did not know she was HIV+, but it is now U.S. law that all OBGYN's test all pregnant mothers' blood for HIV, because when HIV+ mothers are medicated, transmission to the baby should never happen.
• With treatment, HIV levels can become so low that they are undetectable.
• HIV will NOT be passed to family members, unless there is direct blood to blood contact, one of the other few ways HIV can be spread.
• HIV can ONLY be spread through:
• pregnancy,
• birth,
• breast milk,
• sexual activity that mixes blood, semen, and/or vaginal fluid, and through
• blood to blood contact.
• HIV can NOT be spread through:
• sharing food, drinks, utensils, or dishes,
• changing diapers, or touching
• urine
• stool
• mucous
• tears
• sweat
• sharing a swimming pool or bath tub
• mosquito bites
• sharing classroom or office space
• contact sports, fighting, playing
• Treatment for HIV+ children usually requires pills twice a day.  It also requires 4 appointments with an infectious disease specialist each year.

Facts about how deadly HIV/AIDS is worldwide, where proper treatment is not usually available:

• There is no vaccine and no cure for HIV/AIDS.
• Without treatment, HIV becomes AIDS and leads to certain death.
• 40.3 million live with HIV/AIDS worldwide. 
• The overwhelming majority of these people live in resource-poor countries.
• 1/3 of the are between the ages of 15-24
• As of December 2002, over half a million people in the U.S. alone had died of AIDS. 
• AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since 1981- more than four Jewish holocausts or 22 Rwandan genocides
• In 2005, every MINUTE there were 10 newly infected people worldwide.
• Africa has 12 million AIDS orphans
• 43% of those infected with HIV are women.

Some links for you:

• Tell Me More About HIV Fact Sheet
• NY State Department of Health
• 100 Questions & Answers About HIV/AIDS
• Positively Adopted
• Positively Orphaned
• Project Hopeful
• A list of blogs where you can read the day-to-day life of families who adopted HIV+ children

This concludes my series on HIV.  Now you know.  GO DO SOMETHING!

• Intro: A Series is Born
• Part 1: How God Opened Our Hearts to HIV
• Part 2: HIV: I Want That Kind of Faith
• Part 3: The Stigma is a Lie (and Satan is the Liar)
• Part 4: Talking to Mothers of HIV+ Children
• Part 5: What to Do, Now That You Know
• End: (today) Helpful Facts About HIV/AIDS

 (Originally posted 9/4/10)