George Mat

HIV/AIDS Resource Center

India is home to 2.3 million AIDS victims. What are AIDS facts we must know.

Dec 1, 2009, World AIDS Day, was celebrated in India with much gung-ho; the health ministry of the Government of India patted itself on the back for the overall drop in the number of HIV positive people in the country - by around 400,000, while the drop in new HIV cases came down to 100,000 per year,.  

While this news is indeed encouraging, the question is India in a AIDS-safe zone? India is the third largest nation with HIV AIDS after South Africa and Nigeria, being home to 2.3 million AIDS victims.

How can we fight this debilitating disease? What are the facts on this deadly condition called AIDS that we must know.

AIDS, the abbreviated form of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is the advanced stage of infection by Human Immunodeficiency virus.

AIDS is a global pandemic, and nations across the world are fighting it.

How AIDS spreads: You can contract the infection by having unprotected sex with an infected partner, transfusion of infected blood, or sharing of infected needles. It can pass on to the unborn child of a pregnant mother, who has tested positive for the HIV virus; or after childbirth through breastfeeding;

Signs and symptoms of AIDS may not appear immediately after one contracts the HIV virus infection; in fact, it may take as many as ten long years for the HIV virus to manifest into AIDS, and destroy the body’s immune system completely.

Can AIDS be treated completely? No, it cannot. But it is possible to survive if detection is early by administering antiretroviral therapy as advised by doctors.

Once tested positive for the HIV virus, the victim must make contact with ICTC (Integrated Counseling and Testing Centers). 

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