Contents:
- Medical Video: Medical Animation: HIV and AIDS
- Unsafe sexual activity
- 2. Use, abuse and drug dependence
- 3. Mothers who are infected with HIV
Medical Video: Medical Animation: HIV and AIDS
HIV can be transmitted through certain body fluids: blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectum fluid, vaginal fluids and breast milk. Certain behaviors can pose a risk to HIV, such as: unprotected sex, sharing unsterile needles and equipment.
You are at high risk of HIV if you have:
Unsafe sexual activity
For example, having unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who is infected with HIV. Also, having multiple sexual partners or if you are a man who has sex with other men can have a higher risk of HIV.
HIV is most often transmitted sexually, because of fluid and viral exchange, especially where there are wounds in the vaginal or anal tissue, or sexually transmitted diseases. Girls are more susceptible to HIV infection because the vaginal membranes are thinner and susceptible to infection compared to adult women.
Oral sex has a low risk of HIV transmission. If people who receive oral sex have HIV, blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid or vaginal fluids can carry the virus. If people who have oral sex have HIV, blood from the mouth can enter the recipient's body of oral sex through the urethral layer (opening at the tip of the penis), vagina, cervix, anus or through a wound.
Several factors can increase the risk of HIV transmission through oral sex, including oral ulcers, bleeding gums, genital wounds and other sexually transmitted diseases.
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2. Use, abuse and drug dependence
This is closely related to HIV infection since the onset of the outbreak. Although injection drug use is a direct route of transmission, drinking, smoking, swallowing or inhaling drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine ("meth") and amyl nitrite ("poppers") also associated with an increased risk of HIV infection. These substances can increase risk by reducing user awareness in carrying out risky sexual behavior.
For example, sharing needles, syringes and other drug injection equipment contaminated with HIV can increase the risk of getting HIV. In addition, substance use can affect health conditions and make it more vulnerable to HIV, and in people who have been infected, the use of substances can accelerate the development of HIV and have a detrimental effect on treatment.
Use tattoo or body piercing equipment - including ink - that is not sterile or clean and infected with HIV.
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3. Mothers who are infected with HIV
Babies born to mothers infected with HIV are also at risk for infection. Most children under 13 who have HIV are infected with a virus from their mothers.
