What is HIV and How Does it Relate to AIDS?

What is HIV?

To answer the question what is HIV AIDS, we have to start early in the epidemic. In 1985, scientists discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and with it the question what is aids was answered. HIV is a virus that is transmitted from person to person through the exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, breast milk and vaginal secretions. Sexual contact is the most common way to spread HIV AIDS, but it can also be transmitted by sharing needles when injecting drugs, or during childbirth and breastfeeding. As HIV AIDS reproduces, it damages the body's immune system and the body becomes susceptible to illness and infection. There is no known cure for HIV infection.

What is AIDS?

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is a condition that describes an advanced state of HIV infection. With AIDS, the virus has progressed, causing significant loss of white blood cells (CD4 cells) or any of the cancers or infections that result from immune system damage. Those illnesses and infections are said to be "AIDS-defining" because they mark the onset of AIDS. Like HIV, there is no known cure for AIDS.

HIV/AIDS - More Than Just a Disease

Soon after the emergence of the AIDS epidemic, it became evident that HIV was much more than just a disease. Unlike any other disease, HIV not only touches the lives of those infected, but it also impacts the lives of virtually everyone on earth. One would be hard pressed to find any group not affected by the HIV epidemic in some way. Simply put, it is clearly one of the most important public health issues.

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer in men and fourth leading cause of cancer in women in the United States. The frequency of colorectal cancer varies around the world; common in the western world and rare in Africa and Asia. According to the American Cancer Society, almost 150,000 new cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed and approximately 50,000 people died from the disease last year in the US. Because it's so common and potentially devastating, colorectal cancer awareness is very important. That's why March is colorectal cancer awareness month. While colorectal cancer affects so many people, it is preventable through regular screenings, regular exercise, and a healthy diet. Simply put, colorectal cancer awareness is necessary if colon cancer is going to be beaten.

Talk to your doctor at your next appointment. Do you have risk factors that increase the chance you may get colorectal cancer? Come to think of it you do...HIV. HIV increases your risk of colorectal cancer. That along should urge you to speak to your doctor and see if you are in need of a colorectal cancer screening.

Source

_{Scotti, P.; "March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month"; Mayo Clinic; 2 Mar 2009.}

Ask the Doctor: What Do I Need to Know About the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test?

Every month, HIV specialist Theresa Mack, M.D., M.P.H. -- an associate medical director at St. Luke's Medical Group in Harlem, N.Y. -- will answer your most pressing HIV/AIDS questions.
In July 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, which lets Americans learn their HIV status in the privacy of their homes. Any intervention that may increase the number of people getting tested for HIV is a great development because the earlier you know your status, the sooner you get into treatment.
Not only does early treatment keep you healthy longer, but studies have shown that those who are in treatment are less likely to transmit HIV to others.  If you choose the in-home HIV test, you should know the following important facts:

1. The in-home kits are the same as the oral HIV tests that are administered by trained personnel. However, oral tests are not as accurate as a blood test that you may get at a doctor's office. With the in-home kits, there is also the chance that you can use the kit incorrectly and get inaccurate results. In a clinical study (pdf) performed by its manufacturer, OraSure Technologies, that compared the results of in-home HIV-kit tests with confirmed laboratory results, one out of 4,903 people who were HIV negative received a false-positive reading when using the in-home kit. Another 8 percent received a negative test result when using the in-home kit, even though laboratory results found them to be HIV positive.There are a number of reasons that an in-home test can yield inaccurate results:
   
   
   • The tester may not have followed instructions correctly.
   • The tester may have followed the instructions but obtained an inadequate amount of sample on the swab.
   • The tester may have read the results too soon. The results should be read between 20 and 40 minutes (pdf) after the test is taken.
   • The test could malfunction. For example, an in-home kit should not be used past its expiration date. Kits can also malfunction (pdf) if they've been stored at a temperature outside the 36 to 80 F range.
2. The in-home HIV test kit (just like any oral HIV test) cannot determine if you are HIV positive. It can only indicate a preliminary positive, which must be confirmed with a blood test by a health-care professional. However, because of stigma and a lack of knowledge among the general community, some people who get a preliminary-positive result may panic and avoid seeking confirmation because they believe it to be a death sentence. Even if a preliminary result is confirmed by a blood test, people living with HIV can live long and well if they get into and stay in treatment.
3. It may take up to six months after HIV exposure to test positive. An in-home kit (just like the HIV testing in your doctor's office) will not give a preliminary-positive result if HIV infection occurred a week or two before you took the test. It is recommended that you repeat the HIV test in six weeks, three months and six months.
4. If you have unprotected sex with a partner whose status you don't know or if the condom breaks, you should start PEP, or postexposure prophylaxis, immediately to prevent HIV infection. Go to the nearest emergency room for treatment.
5. If you get a negative diagnosis from an HIV test, whether taken via an in-home kit or at your doctor's office, you should continue to use condoms if you don't know your partner's status so that you stay HIV negative.

The Basics of In-Home Testing

Advertisement

The OraQuick In-Home HIV test will be available in October 2012 at more than 30,000 retail outlets across the country, including CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid. The price has not yet been finalized, though it is expected to be more than the $17.50 that medical professionals currently pay for it. There has even been some speculation that the price could be as high as $60, since OraSure will be incurring additional costs with the release of the kit, such as those associated with setting up a 24-hour hotline for testers to call after they get their results. The kit may appeal to people who would rather find out about a potential HIV diagnosis alone and to those in rural areas who are unable to easily get to an HIV-testing site.
To use the kit, follow the instructions and diagrams in the package. Apply a cotton swab to the upper and lower gums and place it in a liquid-containing test tube for 20 to 40 minutes. The test measures whether the oral sample contains HIV antibodies, which are special proteins produced in the bodies of people who are HIV positive to fight the infection.
As with a home pregnancy test, one or two lines will appear in a small window on the device to indicate your results. One line would indicate that no HIV antibodies were identified, while two lines would indicate the possible identification of HIV antibodies. Again, this is a preliminary-positive test, and its results must be confirmed by a blood test done by a health-care professional.
OraSure will be providing that 24-hour hotline to answer your questions about HIV/AIDS, counseling and being linked to a medical facility for the confirmation of a preliminary-positive test. Even if your confirmatory blood test is positive, try not to panic. With current antiretrovirals, you can still live a long, productive life.
Tamara E. Holmes is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who writes frequently about health and wellness.

Protecting Our Youth From HIV/AIDS

As we work to turn the tide on HIV, we can almost imagine a day without AIDS -- but it will be impossible to achieve if young people are not central to our work.

People under the age of 30 represent approximately four of every 10 new HIV infections each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But nowhere is the epidemic more virulent and voracious than in young Black men who have sex with men (MSM), among whom the number of HIV infections increased 48 percent from 2006 through 2009.

This growth has been exacerbated by the failure to provide adequate information to young people about their sexual health. Many of them are unable to obtain information about safe sex or sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the failure of state and local boards of education to provide funds for sex education.

Advertisement

"We should be ashamed of this failure to protect young people from the epidemic of HIV/AIDS," said Phill Wilson, President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute. "We need massive investments in community education, in HIV science and treatment literacy programs and in peer patient navigation services that link individuals to the care they need -- and we need to act on our convictions."

Adequately preparing young people to face the challenges of HIV/AIDS in their lives is critical to reducing this toll and achieving the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which calls for educating all young people on HIV, as well as intensified prevention for populations at greater risk, including Black youth.

So we must act to increase access to sex education, with appropriate lessons on sexual health. We also must insist that public schools teach students about safe sex, and proactively provide access to condoms and all appropriate forms of prevention and treatment.

We also need to introduce HIV/AIDS testing to teenagers, reminding them to visit a primary care physician regularly and to ask to be tested for HIV. We must increase our focus on pregnant young women, to reduce the number of children born with HIV/AIDS, as well as their partners. And we must do more to help prevent mother-to-child transmission, which can occur during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or breastfeeding. Without treatment, around 15-30 percent of babies born to HIV-infected women will become infected with HIV during pregnancy and delivery. A further five-20 percent will become infected through breastfeeding.

It's essential that we support our community health organizations, which have the ability to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention among young people and to provide referrals for young people with HIV/AIDS to medical professionals for anti-retroviral treatments and other components of care.

But nothing is more important than working to improve access to better healthcare for young people by fully implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will deliver health coverage to more than 30 million people who are currently uninsured, including mothers and families with children. In fact, Americans under 27 were among the very first beneficiaries of healthcare reform, becoming eligible to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until their 27th birthday, within the first year after Congress passed the legislation.

We have achieved reductions in the rate of infections among newborn children and older people. Now, it is our responsibility to take care of our future and to act on behalf of young people who need access to information, prevention, and treatment to rid HIV from our future generations once and for all.

What to Expect from Breastfeeding !

 

I’m all about having realistic expectations: If you know up front that something is going to be hard, then you won’t be so distressed when you start hitting obstacles.

No question about it: Breastfeeding is hard…at first

There are many benefits to breastfeeding, including protecting the child from some illnesses because of antibodies transferred from mother to baby, as well as lowering the risk of obesity for the child in future years. And breastfeeding makes it easier for a new mother to lose her “baby fat” from pregnancy.

Ad yet, although over 80 percent of new moms start out trying to breastfeed, at least half or more of them give it up, despite all the recommendations by experts that women should try to exclusively breastfeed their infants until at least 6 months of age.

What I want this blog to do

I could blog for an entire year about breastfeeding, and I still wouldn’t cover all the information that’s out there. So in this blog I’m going to concentrate just on giving you a realistic expectation about this mysterious practice.

The first obstacle: What our media and society often say

The media tend to portray breastfeeding as something that just comes naturally to all mothers and infants. Well, let me say that I have seen far too many new mothers in the hospital who were completely discouraged because their infant wasn’t feeding well—so don’t you believe it.

What you should know about breastfeeding

• Expect that breastfeeding will initially be hard.
• Most mothers and infants have to learn how to breastfeed.
• It can be miserable at first. You will be exhausted, your nipples will be sore, and no one else can do it for you.
• Note well: Ask that your infant be put to your breast within 1 hour of birth. This practice really does seem to help with getting breastfeeding off to the right start.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. The nurses are well-trained, of course, but most hospitals also have lactation consultants (women who are specially trained in the art of breastfeeding). If you feel that the breastfeeding isn’t going well, you can always ask to see one of these specialists.
• Lactation consultants are also available once you get back home. Your pediatrician should be able to help you find one.
• Plan to feed your newborn every 2-3 hours until your milk comes in. Initially, it may seem that your baby is not getting very much to drink, but what they are getting is full of important antibodies to help their immune system. And, whenever your baby breastfeeds, it sends a message to your body to make more milk.  This is the only way your body will know that it must make milk!
• Hold off introducing a pacifier until you feel that the baby is sucking well. Infants suck differently on a pacifier than they do on a breast, and some babies have difficulty making the transition between breast and pacifier during the first few weeks.
• Find out if any medications that you take or will be taking can interfere with breastfeeding, or could potentially be harmful to your baby.
• Don’t smoke.
• Simply plan to eat, drink, and sleep. Really, that’s about all you will get done for the first few weeks.
• If you’re going back to work, plan and discuss your pumping schedule with your supervisor or with the coworkers who will be affected by your schedule.

Hang in there, and know that it will get better

With my first child, I expected to be doing projects around the house between feedings. I quickly learned that the days passed in a sleep-deprived blur, and that some days just getting myself showered was an accomplishment.

I believe that by 6 to 8 weeks breastfeeding becomes easier than bottle-feeding, and it’s much more rewarding. You never have to warm up formula in the middle of night or worry about bringing formula along with you. And breastfeeding really does foster a special connection between you and your infant. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing a wonderful thing for your infant!

Healthy Kids, Healthy Family By Kristen Danielson, M.D.

About the Expert

Healthy Kids, Healthy Family

Welcome to the blog that I call "Healthy Kids, Healthy Family."

I’m Kristen Danielson, MD, from All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Besides being a full-time mom, I’m also a pediatrician. My goal with this blog is to help you keep your child healthy. This means I will focus on good habits when it comes to diet, exercise and other ways to prevent illness and injuries.

But let’s face it, kids do get sick. So, I will also write about many common problems that you might encounter. No blog is a substitute for a good discussion with your own pediatrician or pediatric nurse to decide what’s best for your sick little one, but hopefully I can provide some useful information as well.

I’ve been practicing pediatrics for 12 years with experience as both an outpatient pediatrician as well as a hospitalist (a pediatrician who takes care of hospitalized children). When I look back on it, I realize that I was taught a huge amount in medical school at the University of Connecticut and even more as a pediatric resident at the University of Rochester. However, it was only after becoming a parent that I really learned what parents need (and want) to hear when talking about the health of a child. That’s exactly what I intend to put in this blog.

And when will a busy parent of today find time to read a blog like this? That’s a tough question. Maybe while you are sitting in a minivan waiting for ballet class to end, or watching another soccer practice from the bleachers, or while standing in line at the supermarket checkout. I know that your time is not your own, so I’ll try to make good use of it .
.