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HIV is spread primarily by unprotected sex (including anal and vaginal sex), contaminated hypodermic needles or blood transfusions, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. [18] Some bodily fluids, such as saliva, sweat, and tears, do not transmit the virus. [19] Oral sex has little risk of transmitting the virus. [20]
HIV is spread when one of these bodily fluids: blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, breast milk, rectal fluids, or vaginal fluids of an HIV-positive person comes into contact with a mucous membrane or bloodstream of an HIV-negative person. [4] HIV transmission can occur via: Unprotected sexual intercourse
[4] In most cases, HIV is a sexually transmitted infection and occurs by contact with or transfer of blood, pre-ejaculate, semen, and vaginal fluids. [5] [6] Non-sexual transmission can occur from an infected mother to her infant during pregnancy, during childbirth by exposure to her blood or vaginal fluid, and through breast milk.
Spitting or transmitting HIV-infected bodily fluids is a criminal offense in some states, particularly if the target is a prison guard. Some states treat the transmission of HIV, depending upon a variety of factors, as a felony and others as a misdemeanor.
He noted that shed scabs (which might be spread via bedsheets or other fomites) often contain “large quantities of virus”, but suggested that the “apparent lack of infectiousness of scab associated virus” might be due to “encapsulation with inspissated pus”. [23] Contaminated needles are the most common fomite that transmits HIV. [24]
HIV is carried in body fluids and is spread by sexual activity. It can also be spread by contact with infected blood, breastfeeding, childbirth, and from mother to child during pregnancy. [73] When HIV is at its most advanced stage, an individual is said to have AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). [74]
After the virus enters the body there is a period of rapid viral replication, leading to an abundance of virus in the peripheral blood. During primary infection, the level of HIV may reach several million virus particles per milliliter of blood. [2] This response is accompanied by a marked drop in the numbers of circulating CD4 + T cells.
HIV is a retrovirus, an RNA virus that enters a host cell and uses the host DNA replication machinery and the enzyme reverse transcriptase to produce DNA from the viral RNA genome. HIV also produces an integrase enzyme which is used to integrate the newly produced viral DNA into the host's DNA. The virus is then replicated every time the host ...