2023-12-01 10:58:00
There is still no cure for HIV infection, but highly effective antiretroviral drugs reduce the risk of the virus multiplying in the body. If therapy is started at an early stage, it can be ensured that the patient will not transmit HIV infection further and will not develop AIDS. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the final stage of HIV infection. However, according to surveys, many still have prejudices due to the existence of a huge number of fakes around this topic. Perhaps DW fact-checking will help someone.
Claim: It is still widely believed that a person’s appearance can determine whether he or she has HIV infection. This is due, for example, to the idea that an infected person is very thin and emaciated in appearance. On social media, thin people share their experiences when they were asked whether they are HIV positive or not? And people living with HIV report that they are repeatedly told that they do not look like those with the infection.
Fact check DW: Statement is incorrect
“HIV infection cannot be detected by sight,” explains Holger Wicht, spokesman for the Deutsche Aidshilfe, Germany’s umbrella organization supporting people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. “If you become infected with HIV, internal processes occur in your body for many years.” Only in the first few weeks after infection may (but not necessarily) symptoms of an acute infectious disease appear, which then subside again.
“A long history of illness actually sometimes affects the appearance of some people,” says Wicht. He clarifies that previously, drugs against the HIV virus caused some changes in the body, for example, in the fatty tissue on the cheeks. However, a representative of Deutsche Aidshilfe emphasizes that it is important to distinguish between HIV and AIDS: “AIDS is a serious disease that occurs when HIV infection is not treated. They are two completely different things. AIDS is the final stage, HIV is an infection, and infection is invisible “.
IN Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) also emphasizes that “a person infected with HIV may look healthy and feel well, but still transmit the virus without knowing that they are carrying it.” Only an HIV test can ensure safety.
Claim: Some people still think that all HIV-infected people are contagious. Most people still believe that HIV is always transmissible – that is, if a person has it, then it is contagious.
Fact check DW: Statement is incorrect
The World Health Organization (WHO) clarifies: “People with HIV who are on antiretroviral therapy and whose viral load is undetectable do not transmit HIV infection through sexual contact.”
The newest drugs prevent the HIV virus from multiplying in the body. This reduces the viral load – sometimes so much that it can no longer be detected by conventional tests. In such cases, there is not enough virus in the body to infect partners during sexual intercourse.
However, the WHO notes: “This state of viral suppression can change if a person loses access to the medicine or does not take it as prescribed.”
According to UNAIDS, in 2022, approximately 39 million people worldwide were living with HIV infection. 71 percent of them achieved an undetectable viral load with antiretroviral therapy (ART). Or at least the viral load had dropped to the point where HIV was still detectable, but at such a low level that the risk of transmission through unprotected sex was “almost zero or negligible.”
Statement: Many people believe that HIV infection can be easily contracted in everyday life, even at the household level. This is proven, for example, by surveys. In different countries, participants were asked: “Would you buy fresh vegetables from a seller if you knew that person had HIV?” In Indonesia, for example, in 2017 (the latest available data), 62.6 percent of respondents aged 15 to 49 said they would not buy.
Fact-checking DW: False
Asep Eka Nur Hidayat, program director for Indonesia at the international non-governmental organization AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), responds to DW’s query with the following: “Awareness of HIV/AIDS is growing. But part of the Indonesian population is still not informed about how HIV is transmitted and believes that HIV infection can be easily transmitted.”
The methods of transmission of HIV infection have been very well studied: interpersonal contacts in everyday life are completely safe. “The main route of infection is through sexual contact, that is, unprotected sex,” emphasizes Adrian Puren, director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa. The country is one of the most affected by HIV – according to UNAIDS, every fifth to sixth person aged 15 to 49 years is HIV-infected.
HIV infection can be contracted through the use of contaminated needles in medical settings or through drug use through injection with a single needle, and theoretically through blood transfusions. However, donated blood is usually carefully tested before it is used.
According to Adrian Puren, the third common route of infection is mother-to-child transmission. If a woman is infected, she can pass the virus on during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. Even so, the risk of infection can be dramatically reduced by medications given to infected pregnant women and possibly their newborns. The risk of mother-to-child transmission of the virus could drop to less than one percent, according to the CDC.
HIV infection can only be transmitted through certain body fluids. These include blood, semen, vaginal or rectal discharge, and breast milk. “The immunodeficiency virus does not survive long outside the human body (for example, on surfaces) and cannot reproduce outside the human body,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The World Health Organization emphasizes that HIV infection cannot be contracted in everyday life: for example, by shaking hands, hugging, kissing or sharing utensils, food or water. The CDC also says there is no risk of infection if you eat food prepared by an HIV-positive person. “The only known cases are in infants. Infection occurs when infected parents not taking antiretroviral drugs pre-chew infant food that contains blood from the mouth.”
Saliva, tears and sweat do not pose a risk of infection. HIV infection is also not transmitted by airborne droplets or by using a shared toilet.
See also:
#Fighting #HIV #fighting #fakes