This number contributed to about 66% of the world’s AIDS deaths that year (amfar, 2015). It is important to note exactly what HIV and AIDS actually is. HIV is an immunodeficiency virus, which when left untreated, can progress to the disease known as AIDS. It is crucial to catch HIV in the earliest stages in order to reduce the risk of it worsening to AIDS. This is a chronic, debilitating disease that often leads to death. HIV/AIDS is a communicable disease that is most commonly transmitted through sexual contact. However, additional ways the disease can spread includes: injection drug use, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, occupational exposure, blood transfusions, and organ transplants. The virus is transmitted through body fluids such as, blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. In order to transmit the disease, these fluids must come into contact with an individual’s mucous membrane, damaged tissue, or be directly injected into the blood
This number contributed to about 66% of the world’s AIDS deaths that year (amfar, 2015). It is important to note exactly what HIV and AIDS actually is. HIV is an immunodeficiency virus, which when left untreated, can progress to the disease known as AIDS. It is crucial to catch HIV in the earliest stages in order to reduce the risk of it worsening to AIDS. This is a chronic, debilitating disease that often leads to death. HIV/AIDS is a communicable disease that is most commonly transmitted through sexual contact. However, additional ways the disease can spread includes: injection drug use, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, occupational exposure, blood transfusions, and organ transplants. The virus is transmitted through body fluids such as, blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. In order to transmit the disease, these fluids must come into contact with an individual’s mucous membrane, damaged tissue, or be directly injected into the blood