HIV is a virus that causes AIDS by weakening a person's immune system. It is transmitted via bodily fluids from sexual contact, contaminated needles, or from mother to child. While some people show no early symptoms, others experience a brief flu-like illness within weeks. Over time, HIV destroys immune cells called CD4 cells, leaving the body vulnerable to infections and cancers that define AIDS. Antiretroviral treatment can suppress HIV and prolong life, but does not cure it. Risk is reduced by condom use, treatment of STDs, male circumcision, and use of sterile needles by drug users.

1. HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a subgroup of retrovirus) that causes
HIV infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).[1][2] AIDS is a condition in
humans in which progressive failure of the immune systemallows life-threatening opportunistic
infections and cancers to thrive. Without treatment, average survival time after infection with
HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.[3] Infection with HIV occurs
by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk. Within these bodily
fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells.
Symptoms
Some people who become infected with HIV do not notice any immediate change in their
health. However, some suffer from a brief flu-like illness within a few weeks of becoming
infected, or develop a rash or swollen glands. These symptoms do not indicate the
development of AIDS, and the symptoms usually disappear within a few days or weeks.The
majority of people infected by HIV develop a flu-like illness within a month or two after the
virus enters the body. This illness, known as primary or acute HIV infection, may last for a few
weeks. Possible signs and symptoms include:
 Fever
 Headache
 Muscle aches
 Rash
 Chills
 Sore throat
 Mouth or genital ulcers
 Swollen lymph glands, mainly on the neck
 Joint pain
 Night sweats
 Diarrhea
 Weight loss
 Cough
 Fatigue
 Shortness of breath
 Pneumonia
 Memory loss, depression, and other neurological disorders

2. Causes of HIV
A person with HIV can pass the virus to others whether or not they have any symptoms. People
with HIV are more infectious in the weeks following infection.
Sexual contact
According to Public Health England, 95% of people diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 2011
acquired HIV through sexual contact.
The main routes of transmission are unprotected vaginal and anal sex. It is also possible to
catch HIV through unprotected oral sex, but the risk is much lower.
The risk of HIV transmission through oral sex will be higher if the person giving oral sex has
mouth ulcers, sores or bleeding gums and/or if the person receiving oral sex has been recently
infected with HIV (and has a lot of the virus in their body) or another sexually transmitted
infection.
The type of sex also makes a difference to the level of risk:
 performing oral sex on a man with HIV carries some risk, particularly if he ejaculates
(comes) in your mouth
 it is possible to catch HIV by performing oral sex on a woman with HIV, particularly if she
is having a period, although this is considered to be extremely low risk
 receiving oral sex from someone who has HIV is also extremely low risk as HIV is not
transmitted through saliva.
Other risk behaviours
Other ways of getting HIV include:
 sharing needles, syringes and other injecting equipment
 from mother to baby before or during birth or by breastfeeding
 sharing sex toys with someone infected with HIV
 healthcare workers accidentally pricking themselves with an infected needle (this risk is
extremely low).

3. How is HIV transmitted
HIV is not passed on easily from one person to another. The virus does not spread through the
air like cold and flu viruses.
HIV lives in the blood and in some body fluids. To get HIV, one of these fluids from someone
with HIV has to get into your blood.
The body fluids that contain enough HIV to infect someone are:
 semen
 vaginal fluids, including menstrual blood
 breast milk
 blood
 lining inside the anus
Other body fluids, like saliva, sweat or urine, do not contain enough of the virus to infect
another person.
The main ways the virus enters the bloodstream are:
 by injecting into the bloodstream (with a contaminated needle or injecting equipment)
 through the thin lining on or inside the anus and genitals
 through the thin lining of the mouth and eyes
 via cuts and sores in the skin
HIV is not passed on through:
 kissing
 spitting
 being bitten
 contact with unbroken, healthy skin
 being sneezed on
 sharing baths, towels or cutlery
 using the same toilets or swimming pools
 mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
 contact with animals or insects such as mosquitoes
Less commonly, HIV may be spread by
 Being born to an infected mother. HIV can be passed from mother to child during
pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding.

4.  Being stuck with an HIV-contaminated needle or other sharp object. This is a risk mainly
for health care workers.
 Receiving blood transfusions, blood products, or organ/tissue transplants that are
contaminated with HIV. This risk is extremely small because of rigorous testing of the US
blood supply and donated organs and tissues.
 Eating food that has been pre-chewed by an HIV-infected person. The contamination
occurs when infected blood from a caregiver’s mouth mixes with food while chewing,
and is very rare.
 Being bitten by a person with HIV. Each of the very small number of documented cases
has involved severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood.
There is no risk of transmission if the skin is not broken.
 Oral sex—using the mouth to stimulate the penis, vagina, or anus (fellatio, cunnilingus,
and rimming). Giving fellatio (mouth to penis oral sex) and having the person ejaculate
(cum) in your mouth is riskier than other types of oral sex.
 Contact between broken skin, wounds, or mucous membranes and HIV-infected blood
or blood-contaminated body fluids. These reports have also been extremely rare.
 Deep, open-mouth kissing if the person with HIV has sores or bleeding gums and blood
is exchanged. HIV is not spread through saliva. Transmission through kissing alone is
extremely rare.
How HIV infects the body
HIV infects cells of the immune system, the body’s defence system, causing progressive damage
and eventually making it unable to fight off infections.
The virus enters cells in the immune system called CD4 cells + ve lymphocyte cells, which
protect the body against various bacteria, viruses and other germs.
It uses the CD4 cells to make thousands of copies of itself. These copies then leave the CD4
cells, killing them in the process.
This process continues until eventually the number of CD4 cells, also called your CD4 count,
drops so low that your immune systemstops working.
This can take about 10 years, during which time you will feel and appear well. Find out more
about the symptoms of HIV.

5. Who is most at risk?
People who are at higher risk of becoming infected with HIV include:
 men who have had unprotected sex with men
 women who have had sex without a condom with men who have sex with men
 people who have had sex without a condom with a person who has lived or travelled in
Africa
 people who inject drugs
 people who have had sex without a condom with somebody who has injected drugs
 people who have caught another sexually transmitted infection
 people who have received a blood transfusion while in Africa, eastern Europe, the
countries of the former Soviet Union, Asia or central and southern America.
Treatment
HIV Treatment
When people discover they have HIV, they may not begin taking medications immediately. The
decision to start treatment for HIV is individual and considers a person's past medical history,
the length of time they've been infected with HIV, current CD4 T cell count, and current health.
The most effective treatment for HIV is antiretroviral therapy, a combination of several
medicines that aims to control the amount of virus in your body.
Research suggests that treatment of early HIV with antiretroviral medicines has long-term
benefits, such as a stronger immune system.6
But you may decide not to get treated at first. If you put off treatment, you will still need
regular checkups to measure the amount of HIV in your blood and check how well your immune
system is working. Two main types of HIV vaccines are currently being tested -- preventive and
therapeutic.
Treatment as prevention
Increasingly, antiretroviral treatment is being used to prevent HIV transmission. Good
adherence to antiretroviral treatment can lower a person’s viral load and reduce the risk of
onwards HIV transmission to others.

6. Alternative Medicine for HIV and AIDS
Antiretroviral therapies have brought renewed hope for many people living with HIV. However,
they do not offer a cure, and they can cause many side effects.
HIV Treatment in Children
If HIV is diagnosed before it becomes AIDS, medicines can slow or stop the damage to the
immune system. Early treatment can help your child live a long and active life.
Preventing the sexual transmission of HIV
 Condom use ( including female condoms)
 Safer sex education
 Treating sexually transmitted infections
 Male circumcision.
 HIV is spread through contact with the blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, vaginal fluids,
rectal fluids, or breast milk from a person infected with HIV.
 In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having sex or sharing injection drug
equipment, such as needles, with someone who has HIV.
 To reduce your risk of HIV infection, use condoms correctly every time you have vaginal,
oral, or anal sex. Don’t inject drugs. If you do, use only sterile injection equipment and
water and never share your equipment with others.
 Treatment with HIV medicines (called antiretroviral therapy or ART for short) helps
people with HIV live longer, healthier lives. Although ART can reduce the risk of HIV
transmission, it’s still important to use condoms during sex.

7. Introduction
In this presentation I will talk about HIV, some people who become infected with HIV do not
notice any immediate change in their health. However, some suffer from a brief flu-like illness
within a few weeks of becoming infected, or develop a rash or swollen glands. These symptoms
do not indicate the development of AIDS, and the symptoms usually disappear within a few
days or weeks. The majority of people infected by HIV develop a flu-like illness within a month
or two after the virus enters the body. This illness, known as primary or acute HIV infection,
may last for a few weeks.

8. Index

9. Bibliography
1.
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Bibcode:1993Sci...260.1273W. doi:10.1126/science.8493571. PMID 8493571.
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of AIDS". Annu. Rev. Med. 60: 471–84. doi:10.1146/annurev.med.60.041807.123549.
PMC 2716400. PMID 18947296.
  UNAIDS, WHO (December 2007). "2007 AIDS epidemic update" (PDF). p. 10. Retrieved
2008-03-12.
  Cunningham AL, Donaghy H, Harman AN, Kim M, Turville SG (2010). "Manipulation of
dendritic cell function by viruses". Current opinion in microbiology 13 (4): 524–529.
doi:10.1016/j.mib.2010.06.002. PMID 20598938.
  Garg H, Mohl J, Joshi A (Nov 9, 2012). "HIV-1 induced bystander apoptosis". Viruses 4
(11): 3020–43. doi:10.3390/v4113020. PMC 3509682. PMID 23202514.
  Kumar, Vinay (2012). Robbins Basic Pathology (9th ed.). p. 147. ISBN 9781455737871.
  International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (2002). "61.0.6. Lentivirus". National
Institutes of Health. Retrieved February 28, 2006.
  International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (2002). "61. Retroviridae". National
Institutes of Health. Retrieved February 28, 2006.
  Levy JA (1993). "HIV pathogenesis and long-term survival". AIDS 7 (11): 1401–10.
doi:10.1097/00002030-199311000-00001. PMID 8280406.
  Smith JA, Daniel R (2006). "Following the path of the virus: the exploitation of host DNA
repair mechanisms by retroviruses". ACS Chem Biol 1 (4): 217–26. doi:10.1021/cb600131q.
PMID 17163676.
  Gilbert PB, McKeague IW, Eisen G, Mullins C, Guéye-NDiaye A, Mboup S et al. (February
28, 2003). "Comparison of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infectivity from a prospective cohort study in
Senegal". Statistics in Medicine 22 (4): 573–593. doi:10.1002/sim.1342. PMID 12590415.
  Reeves JD, Doms RW (2002). "Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2". Journal of
General Virology 83 (Pt 6): 1253–65. doi:10.1099/vir.0.18253-0 (inactive 2015-01-13).
PMID 12029140.
  McGovern SL, Caselli E, Grigorieff N, Shoichet BK (2002). "A common mechanism
underlying promiscuous inhibitors from virtual and high-throughput screening". Journal of
Medical Chemistry 45 (8): 1712–22. doi:10.1021/jm010533y. PMID 11931626.
  Compared with overview in: Fisher, Bruce; Harvey, Richard P.; Champe, Pamela C. (2007).
Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Microbiology (Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews Series).
Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 0-7817-8215-5. Page 3
  Various (2008). HIV Sequence Compendium 2008 Introduction (PDF). Retrieved March 31,
2009.
  Chan DC, Fass D, Berger JM, Kim PS (1997). "Core structure of gp41 from the HIV
envelope glycoprotein" (PDF). Cell 89 (2): 263–73. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80205-6.
PMID 9108481.

10. Conclusion
As a conclusion to say that,HIV is not passed on easily from one person to another. The virus
does not spread through the air like cold and flu viruses.HIV lives in the blood and in some body
fluids. To get HIV, one of these fluids from someone with HIV has to get into your blood. HIV
infects cells of the immune system, the body’s defence system, causing progressive damage
and eventually making it unable to fight off infections. But you may decide not to get treated at
first. If you put off treatment, you will still need regular checkups to measure the amount of HIV
in your blood and check how well your immune system is working. Two main types of HIV
vaccines are currently being tested -- preventive and therapeutic.