The Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv ) - 2150 Words

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Human Immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV. It is a virus that attacks our immune system, rendering it useless that it is unable to fight even the basic of infections. HIV is known as a Lentivirus it is known to make you sick but slowly; from the time you get infected to the time you get sick may be 7 to 8 years thus making it a slow virus. It is also a Retrovirus most virus are DNA virus, your bodies instruction manual is written in DNA (instructions for making proteins) but HIV uses RNA and converts this into DNA once it is inside the host cell, incorporating its viral DNA into the host cell’s DNA so the host cell can make more HIV cells. There are many different ways one can get HIV. HIV is†¦show more content†¦Now this is not the same as unprotected vaginal sex which has the second highest risk of transmission because there is exposure to sexual fluids such as semen, vaginal fluids to the mucous membrane. Even though vaginal sex has second highest risk of transmission but it is the most common way HIV is transmitted. And this is because overall people have more vaginal sex that anal sex. Oral sex is another way of transmitting HIV: using the mouth to stimulate the vagina, anus or penis which carries the risk of transmitting HIV. Also someone suffering from chlamydia, STI, Herpes or any other form of sexually transmitted diseases increases your chances of transmitting or getting HIV. As your skin, mucous surface, sores and ulcer (symptoms of STI) allow HIV to easily inject themselves. After sexual transmission the most frequent mode of transmission of HIV is exposure to the blood. A way HIV could be transmitted straight into the blood stream could be involving needles. Which may have been contaminated by someone else blood, so for example using intravenous drugs and sharing needles with someone that is HIV positive. Another case can be if you are a health social worker and you and are taking a sample of blood from a patient and accidently get struck by the needle, there could be a risk of HIV transmission.