HIV infection is a disease that can be avoided, so it is very important to know how HIV is transmitted. Ways of infection and, accordingly, how HIV is transmitted, is known for a long time and doctors have no doubt about the mechanism of spread of this disease. This can occur when blood, vaginal secretions or sperm enter the blood directly, either through the mucous membranes or from an infected mother to the baby in utero, during childbirth or breastfeeding. No other methods of infection have been recorded so far.
HIV infection
According to statistics, all registered cases of infection in the world are distributed as follows:
- 70-80% - through the sexual way;
- 5-10% - injecting drugs;
- 5-10% - to a child from a pregnant or nursing mother;
- 3-5% transfusion of contaminated blood;
- 0,01% - occupational infection of health workers.
In different countries and regions different ways of infection prevail and how HIV is transmitted, homosexual contact with infected people, somewhere heterosexual or injecting, is more common.
Risk of infection
Knowing, through what is transmitted HIV, it is possible to minimize the risk of infection. For example, a high percentage of transmission of infection occurs in unprotected sexual contact with an HIV-infected or AIDS patient. That is, with more people a person will have sexual intercourse, the higher the probability that eventually he will be infected, because HIV is transmitted through sperm. Long gone are those years when people did not know if HIV is transmitted sexually. To date, almost everyone knows that with the carrier of the virus, only one sexual contact will suffice to infect HIV into the body: from man to woman, from man to man, from woman to man, or from woman to woman.
Very often, even when we know which way HIV is transmitted, we lose sight of the fact that you can get infected during completely standard procedures. For example, if in the process of tattoo use is not a one-time tool, then there are no barriers to getting into your body in HIV.
HIV is transmitted orally, if there are excretions of men or women in the oral cavity, but there is absolutely no need to fear that he will be able to penetrate the body through kisses. Of course, many are interested in whether HIV is transmitted by the household way, during skin contact, by airborne droplets or through insect bites. The risk of infection with such contacts is absent. Do not be afraid to live in the same apartment with a carrier of the virus, infection can not occur, if the patient coughs or sneezes, there is no need to use a different dish or wash separately the clothes and clothes of a sick person. Calmly use a shared pool, toilet or bath. HIV is not transmitted through saliva, as it is contained only in sperm, blood, breast milk and in vaginal discharge.
How to avoid infection
A large number of people are wary of various medical procedures, since they do not know how HIV is transmitted. It is important to remember that the risk is completely absent when observing the usual hygiene rules:
- use single medical materials;
- carefully sterilize the instruments;
- when blood or plasma is transfused, donate your own blood;
- correctly prepare inactivated blood products.
It should also be noted that at present the most reliable means of protection during sexual contact with HIV infected is a condom.