What Is AIDS?ĪIDS is the late stage of HIV infection that occurs when the body’s immune system is badly damaged because of the virus. Learn about other ways to prevent getting or transmitting HIV. In addition, there are effective methods to prevent getting HIV through sex or drug use, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), medicine people at risk for HIV take to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), HIV medicine taken within 72 hours after a possible exposure to prevent the virus from taking hold. People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex. If a person’s viral load is so low that a standard lab can’t detect it, this is called having an undetectable viral load. If taken as prescribed, HIV medicine can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood (also called the viral load) to a very low level. Luckily, however, effective treatment with HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) is available. So, once you have HIV, you have it for life. The human body can’t get rid of HIV and no effective HIV cure exists. If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS ( acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). It is spread by contact with certain bodily fluids of a person with HIV, most commonly during unprotected sex (sex without a condom or HIV medicine to prevent or treat HIV), or through sharing injection drug equipment. HIV ( human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks cells that help the body fight infection, making a person more vulnerable to other infections and diseases. Stay up to date with the webinars, Twitter chats, conferences and more in this section. HIV.gov curates learning opportunities for you, and the people you serve and collaborate with. Want to stay abreast of changes in prevention, care, treatment or research or other public health arenas that affect our collective response to the HIV epidemic? Or are you new to this field?
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