HIV Question???!!!???!!!???
968566
It is SUPPOSED to be protected.  There are confidentiality rules that prohibit doctors, insurance companies, and so forth from telling employers or anyone else about the medical conditions the employees are being treated for.\n\nBut even if the docs and the insurers don't tell, the employer might still find out.  If she has told you, she might have told someone else as well.  That person might mention something in casual conversation ("Isn't it too bad about Jennifer?   I wonder if her boyfriend knows?  I sure wouldn't want to have to tell *my* boyfriend that I am HIV positive.")  Word gets around after a while, and she had better be prepared to keep her secret completely or there is a good chance it will get out.  After all, how many official government secrets get leaked one way or another?  It happens every week.\n\nBottom line: she is safe from official disclosure, but that is not the same as being completely safe from accidental disclosure.\n\nGood luck to her and to you!!
394294
HIV does not cause AIDs. It never has done and never will do. There are two types of Viruses. Passanger and pilot. A passenger virus clings onto a human cell and is just along for the ride, it does no harm but does no good either. A pilot virus takes over a cell and stears it towards disease. HIV is a passenger virus. AIDS is a break down in the imune system but its not caused by HIV.  Its caused by drug use and AZT, the drug used to kill the HIV virus. HIV doesn't really do anything except make you feel run down and tired from time to time.
514926
Hi.  I just did a google search on the origin of Aids and Hiv....\nI remembered something about it starting in Africa, but the link I am sending you will tell you the whole story and the dates.\nHope I was of some help...\n\n~Linda S~\naka\nlongleggedblonde1378
152343
HIV does not survive well outside of the human body. This really smells like an urban legend.
673392
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#hivest\n\nRun some math and you will find out that roughly 2.9% of homosexuals in the US have HIV. (1 out of 34)\n\nWhere about .044 - .058% of heterosexuals do. (1 out of 2272 or 1724)\n\nIf UNPROTECTED you are living a risky lifestyle.\n\nExposure Category Estimated # of AIDS Cases, Through 2004* \nMale-to-male sexual contact 441,380\nMale heterosexual contact 59,939    \n\nhomosexual males in us? 5% = 15,000,000\nheterosexual males in us? the rest = 135,000,000
714132
It is highly unlikely your boyfreind is infected. If he had no open sores and no blood got into his system then he cannot have HIV. Please stop worrying about it. You're doing yourself far more harm worrying like this. Kiss your young man for me and good luck.
897396
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm
64587
Unprotected sex, no matter how long can transfer Aids.  The aids may not show up in the blood for a month or two.  Hope you learned something from it, like not having sex without some sort of protection.
681674
My answer was inacurate, the two answers following however quoted an excellent article. To save others the effort I will put the link in here. This article does an excellent job explaining the origions of HIV and the few places I have checked to verify the information contained in the article have checked out.
554423
Causes: Unprotected sex with someone who's HIV positive, Blood transfusion with HIV Positive blood, sharing drug needles with an HIV positive person.\n\nEffects: Potential for Serious illness, compromised immune system, death due to complications from such illnesses. Also, effects include shame, fear, isolation, depression, and hesitancy to have children for fear of passing on the disease.
206528
HIV can be in your body for up to 12 years before starting to replicate, some symptomes could start as flu like symptoms so it's good if you check with your doctor, for any concerns that you might have.
76769
HIV (āch'ī-vē') \nn.\nA retrovirus that causes AIDS by infecting helper T cells of the immune system. The most common serotype, HIV-1, is distributed worldwide, while HIV-2 is primarily confined to West Africa.\n\n\nHIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system. It is widely accepted that infection with HIV causes AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), a disease characterized by the destruction of the immune system. In the United States and Europe, antibodies to HIV are one of the criteria for a diagnosis of AIDS.\n\n\nHIV is transmitted through penetrative (anal or vaginal) and oral sex, blood transfusion, the sharing of contaminated needles in health care settings and through drug injection, and between mother and infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding according to a leading international health care source UN AIDS in UNAIDS transmission (http://www.unaids.org/en/Resources/faq/faq_transmission.asp#7). The use of physical barriers such as the latex condom is widely advocated to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV.\n\nThe WHO estimated in 2000 that 25% of the units of blood transfused in Africa were not tested for HIV and 5% to 10% of cases of HIV infection in Africa were transmitted via blood.\n\n\nHIV enters a CD4+ helper T-cell by bonding with either CXCR4 or both CXCR4 and CCR5 depending on what stage the HIV infection is in. A cofactor protein (fusin) is required to assist binding of the viron to the membrane of the T-cell. During the early phases of an HIV infection typically both CCR5 and CXCR4 are bound while late stage infection often involve HIV mutations that only bind to CXCR4.\n\nOnce HIV has bound to the CD4+ T-cell a viral protein known as GP41 penetrates the cell membrane and the HIV RNA and various enzymes including but not limited to reverse transcriptase, integrase and protease are injected into the cell.\n\nThe host T-cell can process RNA into proteins (as in Polio virus) but this doesn't happen with HIV. Instead, HIV is stabilised by copying it into DNA and inserting it into the host cell's chromosomes. This means the virus can perform more subtle functions by using the host transcription machinery. The virus generates DNA from the HIV RNA using the reverse transcriptase enzyme to perform reverse transcription. This process can be inhibited by drugs. If this succeeds the pro-viral DNA must then be integrated into the host cell DNA using the integrase enzyme. If the pro-viral DNA becomes integrated into the host cell's DNA the cell is now fully infected but not actively producing HIV proteins. This is the latent stage of an HIV infection during which the infected cell can be an "unexploded bomb" for potentially a long time.\n\nTo actively produce virus, certain transcription factors need to be present in the cell. The most important is called NF-kB (NF Kappa B) and is present once the T cells becomes activated. This means that those cells most likely to be killed by HIV are in fact those currently fighting infection.\n\nThe production of the virus is regulated, like that of many viruses. Initially the integrated provirus is copied to mRNA which is then spliced into smaller chunks. These small chunks produce the regulatory proteins Tat (which encourages new virus production) and Rev. As Rev accumulates it gradually starts to inhibit mRNA splicing. At this stage the structural proteins Gag and Env are produced from the full-length mRNA. Additionally the full-length RNA is actually the virus genome, so it binds to the Gag protein and is packaged into new virus particles.\n\nInterestingly HIV-1 and HIV-2 appear to package their RNA differently - HIV-1 will bind to any appropriate RNA whereas HIV-2 will preferentially bind to the mRNA which was used to create the Gag protein! This may mean that HIV-1 is better able to mutate (HIV-1 causes AIDS faster than HIV-2 and is the majority species of the virus
522329
The reason for the spread of HIV, where ever a person might live, is pretty much the people's own actions.  With the info we have now, barring blood transfusions (and even then rare since blood is tested) and freaky things like a maniac poking someone with an infected needle, the disease is almost 100% preventable. It is quite simple.  Don't hop into bed with everyone you see.  Don't do intravenous drugs.  How hard is that?
803215
OK, HIV cant be transmitted thru mosquitoes cause first: HUMAN... it exists only in humans.  It cannot exist anywhere else.  Remember that when the virus is outside person (that is in the blood) it dies, and only "reactivates" when it comes in contact with blood again (eg an open wound).  Therefore It cant live in a mosquito, cause its not human.  The article below may help.\n\n\nInsects\n\nFrom the onset of the HIV epidemic, there has been concern about transmission of the virus by biting and bloodsucking insects. However, studies conducted by researchers at CDC and elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through insects--even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large populations of insects such as mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks, despite intense efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that HIV is not transmitted by insects.\n\nThe results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person’s or animal’s blood into the next person bitten. Rather, it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant or anticoagulant so the insect can feed efficiently. Such diseases as yellow fever and malaria are transmitted through the saliva of specific species of mosquitoes. However, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect and, unlike organisms that are transmitted via insect bites, HIV does not reproduce (and does not survive) in insects. Thus, even if the virus enters a mosquito or another sucking or biting insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it feeds on or bites. HIV is not found in insect feces.\n\nThere is also no reason to fear that a biting or bloodsucking insect, such as a mosquito, could transmit HIV from one person to another through HIV-infected blood left on its mouth parts. Two factors serve to explain why this is so--first, infected people do not have constant, high levels of HIV in their bloodstreams and, second, insect mouth parts do not retain large amounts of blood on their surfaces. Further, scientists who study insects have determined that biting insects normally do not travel from one person to the next immediately after ingesting blood. Rather, they fly to a resting place to digest this blood meal.
905756
Don't you know that they can and do also test for the presence of HIV virus? Like, they can detect HIV years before they detect AIDS. Please read this: http://www.med.unc.edu/wrkunits/orgs/stepaids/testing.htm\n\nYour immune system will try to fight back by producing antibodies to HIV. Each type of antibody is unique to the disease, so if you have HIV antibodies then you have the virus.\n\nIt can take years for the HIV virus to kill all or most of the immune cells, and once someone has lost most of them its called AIDS. Hunger and malnutrition aren't good for your immune system, but they kill in different and easily identifiable ways that don't look like AIDS to a doctor.\n\nThis will answer most of your other questions:\nhttp://www.aids.org/info/FAQs.html
866885
You can find a complete answer to your question at:\n\nwww.aids.about.com
465977
I hope you are joking.  Unprotected sex & using dirty needles for drug abuse are both causes for AIDS and HIV.  HIV is a cause of AIDS. Knowledge is the key and if you are serious i hope you take the time to research.  Not A Laughing Mater!!!