HIV/AIDS: Not a Laughing Matter
Hello, my name is Shyann Davis and I am going to Science Leadership Academy. For my You & The World project I want to speak on the topic of HIV/AIDs. HIV is also known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus and AIDs are known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. They are both transmitted through unprotected sex. This can be through anal and vaginal sex. Having oral sex isn’t very common to give someone HIV/AIDs but it is still strongly recommended to have protection and make sure you are checked to see if you have HIV/AIDs. This is a very serious topic that not many people know about. Some know much, but others know very little. Many people would feel uncomfortable talking about protection, sex, and the risks of unprotected sex, so my goal for this project is to spread awareness of HIV/AIDs so people can learn some of the risks of having unprotected sex.
An STD is a sexually transmitted disease that you can get from having unprotected or underprotected sex. HIV/AIDS are different types of STDs. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. Over 1.2 million people that live in the United States have HIV or AIDS but only 156,300 don’t even know they have it. People from ages 13 to 64 are tested for HIV and AIDS only once, during a routine check up. 45,000 people are diagnosed, and 30% of them live with people who are undiagnosed. If someone is infected, they can get a treatment called “antiretroviral therapy”, or ART for short. This treatment clears away almost 96% of the transmitted HIV. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get rid of the disease completely, but it does slow it downes long enough to stop it from spreading with a combination of pills to eventually stop it from spreading. Knowing what HIV is is important because many people don’t even know what HIV/AIDS are. They thought that if they had sex with a person who had HIV/AIDS that they wouldn’t get it either. Some even thought having oral sex doesn’t give them HIV/AIDS but it can create many problems even if it’s at a very low risk. Making sure everyone is aware of what HIV/AIDS are and how to prevent them from happening, or if they already have them can learn the treatment is very important.
Increased and Decreasing The Risk
Having unprotected sex is one way to increase the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Another way would be sharing needles with someone. This means after someone has used a needle and you use it after them. This can higher the risk of getting other fattail infections as well. Some ways to decrease the risk would be abstinence. This means waiting a while before going into something. The longer you wait to have sexual intercourse, the less partners you have, and the less likely you will get HIV/AIDS. Other ways you can lower the risk is if you use a condom with lubricants, taking medicine to prevent HIV/AIDS, and simply getting tested to make sure you don’t have it. Knowing how the risk of getting HIV/AIDS can increase and decrease is very important. If someone is sexually active they need to know how to use protection and getting tested. If they don’t know this they have a great risk of passing or receiving HIV/AIDS. They need to know what they can do to prevent them from getting HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS are spread through semen (the male reproductive fluid), breast milk, blood, vaginal and rectal fluids, and pre-seminal fluid (pre-cum). It is also spread by being with someone who has HIV/AIDS, sharing food with someone with HIV/AIDS, deep open mouth kissing, and touching broken skin. It is not spread by water or air, insects, sharing a toilet, touching your “social” kissing your partner, and sharing water fountains.
This is important to know so many people can prevent themselves from getting this. They can stay even safer than they are now. If you have ever had an open wound, someone else had an open wound, and they both touch, there was a chance you could have gotten HIV/AIDS. People need to know this information. Like if someone doesn’t know that oral sex could get you HIV/AIDS because they didn’t know it could be transferred through rectal and vaginal fluids. This is very important.
AIDS are known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and just like HIV they are a type of STD. It is a late stage of HIV. Just like for HIV, AIDS have no cure but the same treatment as any STD. If someone has AIDS their body is much too weak to be immune to the disease because this STD has already destroyed your immune system.
It is good to know about this because then you can know both about HIV and AIDS and not just one. Knowing about the different side effects of AIDS and what it can do is just as important as knowing the side effects of HIV. These types of STD are very similar, but have very different consequences.
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