Get Tested – AIDS Awareness Month Shines a Light on a Persistent Problem
AIDS Awareness Month is a key opportunity to raise awareness, commemorate those who have passed on, and celebrate victories such as increased access to treatment and prevention services.
More than 1 million Americans are living with HIV, but one in five of them are not aware they are infected. While the total number of people with HIV in the U.S. has increased recently, the annual number of new infections has remained relatively stable.
World AIDS Day is important because it reminds us that HIV has not gone away — every 9.5 minutes, someone in the U.S. is infected. There is still a vital need to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice, and improve education. It also serves as a prime opportunity to remind people of how important it is to get tested and to know your results.
HIV is a virus spread through certain body fluids that attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells, often called T cells. These special cells help the immune system fight off infections. Untreated, HIV reduces the number of T cells in the body. This damage to the immune system makes it harder and harder for the body to fight off infections and some other diseases. Opportunistic infections or cancers take advantage of a very weak immune system and signal that the person has AIDS, the last stage of HIV infection.
No effective cure currently exists, but with proper medical care, HIV can be controlled. The medicine used to treat HIV is called antiretroviral therapy or ART. If people with HIV take ART as prescribed, their viral load (the amount of HIV in their blood) can become undetectable. If it stays undetectable, they can live long, healthy lives and have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex. Before the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, people with HIV could progress to AIDS in just a few years. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can live nearly as long as someone who does not have HIV.
The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested. Knowing your status is important because it helps you make healthy decisions to prevent getting or transmitting HIV.
Some people, but not all, may experience a flu-like illness within two to four weeks after infection. These symptoms can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. During this time, HIV infection may not show up on an HIV test, but people who have it are highly infectious and can spread the infection to others.
If you have these symptoms, that doesn’t mean you have HIV. Each of these symptoms can be caused by other illnesses. But if you have these symptoms after a potential exposure to HIV, see a health care provider and tell them about your risk. The only way to determine whether you have HIV is to be tested for HIV infection.
After you get tested, it’s important to find out the result of your test so you can talk to your healthcare provider about treatment options if you’re HIV-positive or learn ways to prevent getting HIV if you’re HIV-negative.
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