Expert: Terry B - 3/24/2007

Question
where can you pick aids up from?

thax ur really helping me out
ur really clever and helpful

Answer
Dear Hashim:

Peace.  

AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - a condition of a severely impaired immune system which allows one to become ill with diseases the body would normally be able to combat.  It is "Acquired" - meaning that one gets it from another person.  The virus which causes AIDS is called HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus - and is passed from person to person through certain fluids.  The fluids that commonly transmit HIV are blood, semen (the clear or whitish fluid which comes from a man's penis prior to (precum), during, and after ejaculation), vaginal secretions (fluids produced by the vagina for lubrication) and breast milk (from a nursing mother to her infant in some situations).

One contracts HIV from significant exposure to the fluids of an infected person.  A significant exposure means physical contact with the infectious fluids (see above) of an infected person.  A "significant exposure" means contact with these fluids on broken skin or mucous membrane.  Blood to blood contact, as in sharing of needles, or open sores from other Sexually Transmitted Infections are very high risk.  Other factors in an exposure becoming an infection include how much fluid to which one is exposed, how long one is exposed, how much area is exposed, and the amount of virus in the fluid of the infected person (highest early on before onset of symptoms, and late in the disease process).

I hope this is of help, much more information can be found at other websites, including www.aegis.org, www.thebody.com, and many other resources.  I highly recommend AEGIS and their "the basics" section.

Peace and thank you for the compliment.

Terry