World AIDS Day: 10 facts everyone should know about HIV/AIDS

One of the most feared diseases, AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, does not have a permanent cure. It was first reported in 1981 by doctors in New York and Los Angeles. AIDS describes a collection of symptoms and infections that is caused by HIV or human immunodeficiency virus. The level of immunodeficiency or the appearance of certain infections is used to determine when the HIV infection has progressed to AIDS. Those with AIDS who do not receive treatment typically survive about 3 years.

On World AIDS Day, here’s a look at 10 important facts about HIV/AIDS that everyone must know.

AIDS and HIV are not the same and those with HIV do not always have AIDS. AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection.

If not treated, majority of people with HIV develop signs of AIDS within eight to 10 years.

According to the World Health Organisation, HIV is a major global public health issue, which has claimed as many as 40.1 million lives so far.

HIV is transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing of infected needles or other sharp instruments, the transmission of infected blood, and from a mother to her baby during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding.

In 2021, 1.5 million people acquired HIV, while 650,000 people died from HIV-related causes.

Even though there is no cure for HIV infection, it has become a manageable chronic health condition with effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.

One of the misconceptions about HIV is that only gay men get the virus. Even though it is true that gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) are at greater risk of HIV infection, anyone can get the virus. In 2020, cases in which individuals acquired HIV through heterosexual contact accounted for more than one in five new HIV infections or 22 percent.

It is believed that one in eight people with HIV are not aware that they have it.

A person cannot get HIV from insect bites or stings, hugging, shaking hands, or sharing toilets or dishes.

Before 1996, it was believed getting HIV was basically a death sentence. However, a lifesaving regimen of drugs known as antiretroviral therapy (ART) has helped fight the infection. At times, medicines reduce a person’s viral load to such as extent that it is undetectable in the blood, as measured in a viral load test.