AIDS Question - Serious Replies Only Please?
545407
I seriously doubt it.  I guess, most of these people don't understand that if it was that easily spread, almost everyone would have it by now.  Kissing will NOT spread it...oral sex is said to have an EXTREMELY low chance because there are not any documented cases that it has been spread in this way.  Oral sex is more likely to spread other STDs...such as herpes.\n\nIf you've let a guy who is HIV positive go down on you, relax.  I don't think you've contracted it this way.  Go ahead and get checked if you are worried, though.  You should be checked regularly, anyway.\n\nBy the way, its not just plain *ucking stupid to even let him.  Remember, most of the people who answer questions on this site aren't the brightest people around.
250271
Aids is such a broad subject. You probably need to condense it to a subject within Aids for example how about the effects  physically,socially,psychology on HIV infected children
825506
First of all, nobody "gets" AIDS.  However, one can "get" HIV which my progress to AIDS.\n\nNo.  HIV does not spontaneously appear simply by masturbating.  You can not give yourself HIV much in the same way you can't give yourself the flu, or a cold.  The virus must come from somewhere else.\n\nAnd, mutual masturbation (that is, masturbating with someone else) with no exchange of bodily fluids *is* considered one of the safest sexual practices.
961300
You knew your Mother wasn't very clean, so you should have worn a condum.  The only cure for aids is death.  Luckily, a butt head that would ask this stupid a question shouldn't much mind dying.
439596
No! Where have you been for the past 25 years? HIV is a virus; you cannot cure a virus. There are treatments that can prolong your life if you are infected, but they don't always work for everyone. If you become infected, it is very unlikely that you will live out your normal lifespan, even if you have the drugs. And the drugs are too expensive for most people in the poorest countries where they have the highest rates of infection. There is no "cure" for AIDS!!!
407374
Look up the name of Dr. Peter Duesberg. He's the as$hat who's pushing the movement here in the US.\n\nAlso, there are plenty of the HIV tin-foil hat people here on Yahoo!. Just look for "Does HIV cause AIDS?" and I'm sure you'll find them.\n\nADDENDUM: watch me totally pwnz an anti-HIV conspiracy theorist here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aku4IXG8IY3tKDdBW5Nfhhrsy6IX?qid=1006041703857\n\nFeel from to totally slaughter his ideas while you're in there.
1146623
Do you know anyone personally who has lived and died from HIV/AIDS?  I DO!  Not funny.... not funny at all.
870150
The HIV virus has been a living virus in the animal kingdom since time in the beginning. Your pet cat has the virus. What happen was this - as this world over populated and people began to starve, corruption in every corner of the globe, people ate parts of the "monkey" , the brains in fact, for the first time, and that is how the virus entered mankind. Now through bi-sexuality - it spread, and you know that you can be in any part of the world in less then 4-hrs - that is how it travelled into our countries. There will never be a cure for it, as man does not have the DNA link to the animal DNA - the only cure is safe sex, and unfortunately that is not working, or sinking into the heads of our young people. 4 young people and hour, under the age of 34 - (14-34) male and female, contract the AIDS virus an hour! in North America!! we are not far behind the 3rd worlds which have millions dying and dead from this uncontrollable disease. A generation of children are now orphans with both parents dead from HIV. Pass it on and only have safe sex. Good question - Check out "Bono's" site, big web and lots of info on this subject and on feed the world.
635614
This is a pet topic of mine...\n\nThe origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine program being blamed. So what it the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?\n\nThe first 'officially recognized' cases of "AIDS" occurred in the USA in the early 1980s (the real origin was later recognized to be Africa and a lot earlier than 1980). A number of gay men in New York and San Francisco suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome. The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes AIDS was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to the connection (and indeed remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV does cause AIDS. So, in order to find the source of AIDS, it is necessary to look for the origin of HIV, and find out How, When and Where HIV first began to cause disease in humans.\n\nOne theory of the origin of AIDS is that it developed in the Belgian Congo from contaminated vaccines used in the world's first mass immunization for polio. There are a number of reasons why this theory is plausible enough to be worthy of further investigation.\n\n1. The location coincides dramatically. The earliest known cases of AIDS occurred in central Africa, in the same regions where Koprowski's polio vaccine was given to over a million people in 1957-1960.\n\n2. The timing coincides. There is no documented case of HIV infection or AIDS before 1959. Centuries of the slave trade and European exploitation of Africa exposed Africans and others to all other diseases then known; it is implausible that HIV could have been present and spreading in Africa without being recognized.\n\n3. Polio vaccines are grown (cultured) on monkey kidneys which could have been contaminated by SIVs. Polio vaccines could not be screened for SIV contamination before 1985.\n\n4. Another monkey virus, SV-40, is known to have been passed to humans through polio vaccines. A specific pool of Koprowski's vaccine was later shown to have been contaminated by an unknown virus.\n\n5. In order for a virus to infect a different species, it is helpful to reduce the resistance of the new host's immune system. Koprowski's polio vaccine was given to many children less than one month old, before their immune systems were fully developed. Indeed, in one trial, infants were given 15 times the standard dose in order to ensure effective immunization.\n\nIf this theory is correct, it has serious ethical, health and policy implications. In particular, it points to the danger of interspecies transfer of material through vaccinations, organ transplants, etc., which could lead to new variants of AIDS as well as other new diseases. As well, studying the theory may lead to insights about responding to AIDS and preventing new diseases.\n\nHowever, there has been no sustained attempt to test the theory. This could be done, for example, by testing stocks of polio vaccine for the presence of SIV. An offer to undertake tests was made as early as 1991; only in 2000 were some samples tested, and then only US-made vaccine. Another possibility would be to test stored blood samples in Africa from before 1950. If HIV is found, this would undermine the theory.\n\nAlthough the theory has not been properly examined, many people seem to believe it has been refuted. Hilary Koprowski published a letter in Science in 1992 attacking the theory. In 1993, Rolling Stone, which had published a widely publicized article by Tom Curtis about the theory, published an "update", interpreted by Science as a
349189
You can be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and have no symptoms at all. On average, it takes about 7 to 9 years for symptoms to develop. Most symptoms of AIDS are not caused directly by the HIV virus, but by an infection or other condition acquired due to the weakened immune system. Symptoms can include severe weight loss, fevers, headaches, drenching night sweats, fatigue, severe diarrhea, shortness of breath, and difficulty swallowing. The symptoms tend to last for weeks or months at a time and do not go away without treatment. Since these symptoms are commonly seen in other diseases, you can't assume any symptom is HIV/AIDS-related until you get laboratory tests. See a doctor if you think you may be at risk or if you have symptoms. \nYou might not know if you get infected by HIV. Some people get fever, headache, sore muscles and joints, stomach ache, swollen lymph glands, or a skin rash for one or two weeks. Most people think it's the flu. Some people have no symptoms. \nThe virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks or even months before your immune system responds. During this time, you won't test positive for HIV, but you can infect other people. \nWhen your immune system responds, it starts to make antibodies. When you start making antibodies, you will test positive for HIV. \nAfter the first flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer. But during this time, HIV is damaging your immune system. \nOne way to measure the damage to your immune system is to see how many CD4+ cells you have. These cells, also called "T-helper" cells, are an important part of the immune system. Healthy people have between 500 and 1,500 CD4+cells in milliliter of blood. \nWithout treatment, your CD4+ cell count will most likely go down. You might start having signs of HIV disease like fevers, night sweats, diarrhea, or swollen lymph nodes. If you have HIV disease, these problems will last more than a few days, and probably continue for several weeks.
4204
The following numbers are old, and they're all pretty much guesswork anyway, so take them with a grain of salt.  But I venture to say most people in the field would agree with my conclusions.\n\nAccording to a report by researchers Norman Hearst and Stephen Hulley in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the odds of a heterosexual becoming infected with AIDS after one episode of penile-vaginal intercourse with someone in a non-high-risk group without a condom are one in 5 million. With a condom it's even safer--one in 50 million. Just to put this in perspective, the chances of someone in your family getting injured next year in a bubble bath are 1 in 1.3 million (source: The Odds on Virtually Everything, Heron House, 1980). You're in much greater danger of being struck by lightning (1 in 600,000), having your house bombed (1 in 290,000), or being murdered (1 in 11,000).\n\nThe numbers get a lot worse if you engage in "high-risk behavior"--having sexual intercourse or sharing needles with a member of a high-risk group, e.g., a gay or bisexual male or IV drug user from a major metro area, or a hemophiliac. The chances of getting AIDS from one such encounter range as high as 1 in 10,000 using a condom to 1 in 1,000 unprotected. Even if your partner tests negative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the chances of infection from a high-risk person are still relatively high--1 in 50,000 without a condom. That's because there's a 45 to 90 day window during which a newly infected person can infect others but test negative. (A few people go as long as 180 days.)\n\nFrom there on out, statistically speaking, things deteriorate pretty fast. If your partner is HIV-positive, your chances of getting AIDS after one night are 1 in 5,000 with a condom, 1 in 500 without. Have sex with an HIV-positive partner 500 times using condoms and your chances escalate to 1 in 11. Skip the gift wrap and they're 2 in 3.\n\nA couple points: These odds apply equally to men and women. Although there's reason to believe male-to-female AIDS transmission happens more often than female-to-male, the amount of difference is unknown. Also, I have to emphasize again, the numbers involve a lot of guesswork. The authors admit they could be off by a factor of ten in either direction. Still, one message comes through loud and clear: by far the best thing you can do to avoid AIDS is to be picky about your partners. Use of condoms reduces your risk by a factor of 10, sleeping only with people who test negative reduces it by a factor of 5 to 50, but avoiding high-risk partners reduces it by a factor of 5,000. (You'd also be well advised to avoid high-risk behavior, such as unprotected receptive anal sex.) Asking for a resume may not be romantic, but it beats Kaposi's sarcoma.
895065
Hi buddy,\n\nThe HIV virus is a very fragile virus that gets easily killed on drying or contact with ordinary toilet soap or even very dilute spirit.The world wide fear of this infection is not because it gets easily transmitted or that its a tough virus to kill.Its just because the virus attacks the patient's immune system. Death in an HIV infected person comes in the form of other diseases that attack the person when his body's defence mechanisms are in a weak state.\n Human saliva is not demonstrated by research to contain enough load of virus as to cause infection to another person ingesting it. There is a theoretical possibility of the virus getting transmitted thru deep kissing, if the kisser has a mouth ulcer. The virus in that case has a (very small) chance to enter the body of the individual thru this open wound in the mouth. Still the virus may not survive the variable pH levels and salt concentrations of the human saliva.   And all the more, the probability of this type of  transmission is less than 0.01% . In day to day life that kind of probability is considered as ZERO chance...!  Hence we, healthcare workers don't consider saliva as a potential source of infection. Like wise, the chance of a mosquito transmitting the virus is somewhere near 0.004%..!!\n\nRegarding Web sources on AIDS, the United Nations' website is the ultimate knowledge bank ... Log on to www.unaids.org and find a wealth of info and links.\nAll the best.\nBye.
145860
No, mosquitoes cannot transmit AIDS. This is because in order for it to transfer, it would have to stay alive inside the mosquito, but it's block by it's salivary glands, so it's like, killed. This is the way for them to survive. Any mosquito that sucks an HIV positive blood, would completely kill the virus so it doesn't harm themselves. Learned this today in Science! I'm so proud I learned something!
881915
AIDS is a really serious problem.  People should definately worry about it more because it changes your life.  I think people who have AIDS should be honest with their parteners (because most aren't) and warn them.  AIDS is an auto immune disease.  You get sick easily, and it will most likely result in a premature death.
24459
WARNING: Do not use Yahoo! Answers as a medical diagnosis tool.  Always consult your doctor.\n\nWithin 7-10 days of intially being infected with HIV, most individuals (80 to 90 %) develop an acute syndrome characterised by flu-like symptoms of fever, malaise, lymphadenopathy, pharyngitis, headache, myalgia, and sometimes a rash (Kahn and Walker, 1998). Within an average of three weeks after transmission of HIV-1, a broad HIV-1 specific immune response occurs that includes seroconversion. Because of the nonspecific nature of these illnesses, it is often not recognized as a sign of HIV infection. Even if patients go to their doctors or a hospital, they will often be misdiagnosed as having one of the more common infectious diseases with the same symptoms. Since not all patients develop it, and since the same symptoms can be caused by many other common diseases, it cannot be used as an indicator of HIV infection. However, recognizing the syndrome is important because the patient is much more infectious during this period.\n\nHIV is transmitted various ways:\n Sexual route. The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations. Sexual transmission occurs when there is contact between sexual secretions of one partner with the rectal, genital or mouth mucous membranes of another. The probability of transmission per act is between 1 in 53 to 1 in 10,000 for the case of receptive vaginal sex (Pilcher et al., 2004), 1 in 8000 in the case of insertive vaginal sex, 1 in 1000 in the case of insertive anal sex, and between 1 in 100 to 1 in 30 in the case of receptive anal sex.\n\nBlood or blood product route. This transmission route is particularly important for intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions and blood products. Health care workers (nurses, laboratory workers, doctors, etc) are also concerned, although more rarely. Also concerned by this route are people who give and receive tattoos and piercings.\n\nMother-to-child route. The transmission of the virus from the mother to the child can occur in utero during the last weeks of pregnancy and at childbirth. Breast feeding also presents a risk of infection for the baby. In the absence of treatment, the transmission rate between the mother and child was 20%. However, where treatment is available, combined with the availability of Cesarian section, this has been reduced to 1%.\n\nHIV has been found in the saliva, tears and urine of infected individuals, but due to the low concentration of virus in these biological liquids, the risk is considered to be negligible.\n\nAIDS is the most severe manifestation of infection with HIV. Acute HIV infection progresses over time to clinical latent HIV infection and then to early symptomatic HIV infection and later, to AIDS, which is identified on the basis of certain infections.\n\nYou can get HIV at-home test kits at Walgreen's.
769505
First off, nobody "gets" AIDS.  One "gets" HIV which then *MAY* progress to AIDS.\n\nHIV dies almost immediately upon being exposed to air.  It can not live for very long at all outside the body--mere seconds at the most.  Theoretically, one can contract HIV from a toilet seat.  However, a very specific set of circumstances would have had to occur.  A person who has HIV bled or otherwise left on this hypothetical toilet seat some amount of HIV-infected fluid.  Then, you would have to *IMMEDIATELY* sit down on the toilet seat and you would also need to have placed a cut or other opening into your body directly on the blood or other fluid.  Then, you MIGHT contract HIV that way.  But who sits down on bloody toilet seat?\n\nAs far as convincing your mother that touching something will not give her HIV try this tactic:  If HIV *was* spread through touching items, many, many more people would have it.  In fact, even she might have it *IF* it were spread so easily since, chances are, she's either come in contact with HIV.  Or someone she's come in contact with has contact with someone with HIV.  Or someone that person has come in contact with has come in....  Well, you get the idea.
465977
I hope you are joking.  Unprotected sex & using dirty needles for drug abuse are both causes for AIDS and HIV.  HIV is a cause of AIDS. Knowledge is the key and if you are serious i hope you take the time to research.  Not A Laughing Mater!!!