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HIV and AIDS
What is AIDS?
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is caused by HIV infection. HIV stays in the human body and gradually attacks CD4+ T cells, a specific type of white blood cell that is essential to helping the body fight diseases. As time progresses, more and more CD4+ T cells would be damaged and lost, and the body would become too weak to resist infections and diseases. At this point, HIV infection enters its last stage, commonly known as AIDS.
But there’s more to it - even if a person is infected with HIV, s/he can live a long, happy life just like everybody else, given that treatment is received properly before the onset of the final stage of infection (i.e. AIDS).
How is HIV transmitted?
HIV can be transmitted through:
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Exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, precum, and intestinal/vaginal secretions. Transmission occurs when these fluids, coming from an infected person (HIV positive), pass through the mucous membranes, cuts, or open sores of a non-infected person (HIV negative). There is NO documented case of the virus being transmitted through saliva, tears, or sweat.
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Blood contact - such as when you inject drugs and share needles or syringes.
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Mother to fetus/child - a mother infected with HIV may pass it to her child during pregnancy, laboring or breast-feeding.
What are the symptoms of HIV infection?
There are three stages you should know about:
Infection: Normally, around 2-3 weeks after infection, the person would experience flu-like symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, soar throat, rashes, diarrhea and swollen lymph nodes. This can last for a few days to a few weeks. However, not all people would experience these symptoms. It should also be noted that HIV antibody tests received during this period do NOT yield accurate results, and the virus may have already been passed to somebody else (e.g. through unprotected sex), without you knowing about your status.
Incubation period: This is the period where a person does not experience any symptoms, although he has already been infected with HIV (and may not know about it). It can last for as long as 10 years.
AIDS: Without proper treatment, the virus would severely damage the immune system, rendering the body vulnerable to complications and causing a high risk of developing certain cancers. This is the last stage of infection, i.e. AIDS.
How do HIV tests work?
When a person is infected with HIV, the body would produce "HIV antibodies", trying to fight the virus. This is the basic logic behind HIV tests: by checking if these antibodies are present in a person’s blood, urine or oral fluid, it is possible to deduce whether s/he has been infected with HIV. You can get tested in a laboratory via sampling of venous blood, or with an NGO like Midnight Blue, via our rapid testing service (using the finger-prick method). Laboratory tests usually take a week to release the results to you, while at our center (with our rapid, finger-prick test) it only takes 20-30 minutes.
NOTE: There is a 3-month “window period” for HIV tests. This refers to the time between infection with HIV and the time a test can detect the virus. In other words, even if a person has already been infected, it would not show in an HIV test if the moment of exposure falls within the window period, i.e. within three months before the test.