Medical Technology

and Bioethics

Emmanuel Quiopa
II-BS MeT
You may not know,
What is HIV?
FACTS How Is HIV Spread?
 HIV is a virus that attacks the immune sys-

because you dis- tem, our body’s natural defense against ill-
ness.
HIV is spread primarily through contact with the fol-
lowing body fluids:

courage… so If HIV is left untreated, a person’s immune

system will get weaker and weaker until it can
no longer fight off life-threatening infections
Blood (including menstrual blood)
Semen (“cum”) and other male sexual fluids
("precum")

come up and know and diseases.

Testing regularly for HIV means you can get
Vaginal fluids
Breast milk
antiretroviral treatment if you need it and stay
your status healthy.
AIDS describes a set of symptoms and illness-
For people living with HIV, taking HIV drugs and re-
ducing their viral load makes these fluids far less
es that happen at the final stage of HIV infec- likely to transmit HIV to others. This is called HIV
tion, if left untreated. treatment as prevention. If a person living with HIV
takes HIV drugs and maintains an undetectable viral
load (too low to be measured with standard tests),
What is AIDS? their semen or vaginal fluids will not pass HIV on to
Basic facts about AIDS their sexual partner. The most common ways HIV is
AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency spread from person-to-person is
syndrome; it’s also called advanced HIV in- through unprotected sex (no condoms, other barri-
fection or late-stage HIV. ers, or treatment-as-prevention methods
AIDS is a set of symptoms and illnesses that used), sharing needles used for injecting drugs,
develop as a result of advanced HIV infection and mother-to-child (during pregnancy, birth, or
which has destroyed the immune system. breast-feeding).
Fewer people develop AIDS now because
treatment for HIV means that more people are
staying well.
Although there is no cure for HIV, with the
right treatment and support, people living
with HIV can enjoy long and healthy lives. To
do this, it’s especially important to commit to
taking treatment correctly.