Becky Kuhn, M.D., co-founder of Global Lifeworks, covers
critical basic information about HIV and AIDS. HIV is a virus
that causes the disease AIDS. There are treatments but no cure.
HIV is spread by contact between an infected person's body
fluids and another person's mucous membranes. It is spread by
sexual contact, injection drugs users sharing needles, from
mother to child during childbirth or nursing, and by receiving
transfusions of infected blood. You can reduce your risk by
abstaining from sex before marriage, being faithful to a single
partner and using a condom and/or dental dam if you are sexually
active, and by never injecting drugs or by never sharing needles
if you do. It can take up to six months after exposure to HIV
for a person to test HIV positive; even before they test HIV
positive, the infected person can spread the disease to others.
A doctor can prescribe antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to help
prevent HIV from progressing to clinical AIDS.