These come in the form of tablets, which need to be taken every day. They work by stopping the virus replicating in the body, allowing the immune system to repair itself and preventing further damage. Treatment for HIVĪntiretroviral medicines are used to treat HIV. If this is positive, you'll be referred to a specialist HIV clinic for some more tests and a discussion about your treatment options. If your first test suggests you have HIV, a further blood test will need to be carried out to confirm the result. home testing or home sampling kits are available to buy online or from pharmacies – depending on the type of test you use, your result will be available in a few minutes or a few days.clinics may offer a finger prick blood test, which can give you a result in minutes, but it may take up to a few days to get the results of a more detailed HIV test.an early diagnosis means you can start treatment sooner, which can improve your chances of controlling the virus, reduce the risk of becoming more unwell and reduce the chance of passing the virus on to othersīoth positive and negative HIV tests may need to be repeated 1 to 3 months after potential exposure to HIV infection (this is known as the window period), but you should not wait this long to seek help:.emergency anti-HIV medicine called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) may stop you becoming infected if started within 72 hours of possible exposure to the virus – it's recommended that you start it as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours.This involves testing a sample of your blood or saliva for signs of the infection. The only way to find out if you have HIV is to have an HIV test. You can get tested in a number of places, including at a GP surgery, sexual health clinics and clinics run by charities. Seek medical advice as soon as possible if you think you might have been exposed to HIV. The chance of getting HIV through oral sex is very low and will be dependent on many things, such as whether you receive or give oral sex and the oral hygiene of the person giving the oral sex. transmission from mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. ![]() sharing needles, syringes or other injecting equipment.The most common way of getting HIV in the UK is through having anal or vaginal sex without a condom. HIV cannot be transmitted through sweat, urine or saliva. It's a fragile virus and does not survive outside the body for long. This includes semen, vaginal and anal fluids, blood and breast milk. HIV is found in the body fluids of an infected person. Read more about who's most at risk of HIV Causes of HIV infection Some people are advised to have regular tests as they're at particularly high risk. ![]() This means many people with HIV do not know they're infected.Īnyone who thinks they could have HIV should get tested. Most people experience a short flu-like illness 2 to 6 weeks after HIV infection, which lasts for a week or 2.Īfter these symptoms disappear, HIV may not cause any symptoms for many years, although the virus continues to damage your immune system. ![]() With an early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any AIDS-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan. There's currently no cure for HIV, but there are very effective drug treatments that enable most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life. While AIDS cannot be transmitted from 1 person to another, the HIV virus can. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease.ĪIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus.
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