World AIDS Day: eight myths about HIV that have been overthrown | Science and health

Today, about 37 million people live with the virus, 70% of them in Africa. Of this total, 1.8 million contracted the disease in 2017.

Since the first cycle of spreading the disease in the 1980s, all kinds of misinformation and myths have fueled prejudice and stigma about what it means to be infected and live with. HIV. Being infected with this virus is the only way to diagnose AIDS.

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, celebrated on December 1, we have debunked some of these misleading statements.

1 Myth: It is possible to contract the virus by bringing it closer to people with HIV

This false information has long been a source of discrimination against HIV-positive people.

And despite all the awareness campaigns, about 20% of Britons in the UK still thought in 2016 that HIV could be transmitted through skin contact or saliva.

But it is not transmitted to touch or through tears, sweat, saliva or urine.

– To hug, kiss or shake hands

– To divide food

– To share, to kiss or shake hands

– To share with people with HIV, it is impossible to be contaminated by:

] – Sharing a Source of Drinking Water

– Using Common Equipment in the Gymnasium

– Touching a Toilet Seat or a Button

HIV is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids with infected individuals, such as blood, sperm, badl fluid and bad milk.

Second myth: Alternative cures can cure AIDS

Nothing real. Alternative therapies, bathing after bad or bad with a virgin – elements that appear in the universe of misinformation on the subject – will have no effect on HIV.

The myth of "virgin cleanliness", which has spread to sub-Saharan Africa, in parts of India and Thailand, is particularly dangerous.

This has led to the rape of very young girls and, in some reports, even to infants, which also puts them at risk of contracting HIV.

The myth is thought to have its roots in 16th-century Europe, when people began to contract syphilis and gonorrhea. False therapy does not work for these diseases either.

Regarding prayers and religious rituals, although they can help people cope with difficult situations, they have no medicinal effect on the virus.

Third myth: the mosquito can transmit HIV

Although the HIV virus is transmitted through the blood, several studies show that it is impossible to catch it when one is bitten by insects feeding on human blood.

1) When insects bite, they do not inject into the next victim the blood of the person or animal that they have bitten before;

2) HIV lives only a short time in them.

So, even though you live in a region where mosquitoes are numerous and HIV prevalence is high, the two things are not related.

4th myth: HIV is not contracted by oral bad

It is true that the risks of infection by oral bad are lower than in the other modalities. The transmission rate is less than four out of 10,000 badual acts.

But you can contract the virus by having an oral bad with an HIV-positive man or woman – that's why health professionals always recommend using condoms.

Fifth Myth: I will not be infected if I use a condom

Condoms may not be exposed to HIV if they tear, slide, or flee during intercourse.

That's why successful prevention campaigns do not push people to use condoms, but encourage them to get tested for HIV.

According to the WHO, 1 in 4 infected people do not know that she has this disease – about 9.4 million people – which represents a high risk of transmission.

Sixth myth: no symptoms, no HIV

An individual can live with HIV for 10 or 15 years without symptoms. After the initial infection, HIV-positive people may also have flu-like illness, fever, headache, or throat, which does not identify the true reason for these physiological manifestations.

Other symptoms may occur as the infection gradually attacks the immune system: swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, diarrhea and coughing.

Without treatment, the picture could also evolve into serious diseases such as tuberculosis, cryptococcal meningitis, bacterial infections and cancers, such as lymphoma and Kaposi's sarcoma, among others.

7th myth: People living with HIV will die young

People who know how to be HIV positive and who are undergoing treatment are living more and more healthy.

UNAIDS indicates that 47% of all HIV-positive people have a suppressed viral load – that is, that with so-called antiretroviral therapy, they reduce the amount of HIV to one. level that makes it undetectable virus in blood tests.

People with viral suppression do not transmit the disease, even when they have bad with people who are HIV-negative. However, if you stop treatment, your HIV level may become detectable again.

According to the WHO, 21.7 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2017 – up from 8 million in 2010 – accounting for about 78% of HIV-positive people who know their diagnosis.

8th myth: HIV-positive mothers will always infect their children