Following is an exclusive Mehr News Agency interview with Dr. Mohraz, in which she discusses AIDS transmission and prevention.
Q: What is AIDS?
A: AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. An HIV-positive person who has not had any serious illnesses can also receive an AIDS diagnosis on the basis of certain blood tests.
A positive HIV test result does not mean that a person has AIDS. A diagnosis of AIDS is made by a physician using certain clinical criteria, e.g., AIDS indicator illnesses.
Infection with HIV can weaken the immune system to the point that it has difficulty fighting off certain infections. These types of infections are known as opportunistic infections because they take advantage of a weakened immune system to cause illness.
Many of the infections that cause problems or may be life-threatening for people with AIDS are usually controlled by a healthy immune system. The immune system of a person with AIDS is weakened to the point that medical intervention may be necessary to prevent or treat serious illness.
Today there are medical treatments that can slow down the rate at which HIV weakens the immune system. There are other treatments that can prevent or cure some of the illnesses associated with AIDS. As with other diseases, early detection offers more options for treatment and preventative care.
Q: Is there any vaccine or treatment for AIDS?
A: No vaccine for AIDS has been discovered anywhere in the world thus far, although recent studies in this regard have made humanity hopeful.
Although we know that HIV is the cause of AIDS, much remains to be learned about exactly how HIV causes the immune system to break down. Scientists are constantly discovering more information about HIV and AIDS. These discoveries help people learn how to prevent transmission of the virus and help people infected with HIV to live longer, healthier lives. One important question to answer is why some people exposed to HIV become infected and others do not. Scientists believe it most likely depends on how infectious the other person is and how they are exposed. For example, over 90 percent of the people who were exposed through an HIV-infected unit of blood became infected. So we know that blood-to-blood contact is a very efficient way that HIV is spread. On the other hand, many health care workers are splashed with blood or bloody body fluids and this type of exposure has caused very few occurrences of HIV infection. Researchers know how HIV is spread and the ways that people can protect themselves from being exposed to HIV.
Q: How does transmission occur?
A: HIV is spread in three key ways:
1) Sexual contact with an infected person;
2) Blood-to-blood infection;
3) From an infected pregnant woman to her child.
HIV, which is the virus that causes AIDS, is passed from one person to another through blood-to-blood and sexual contact. In addition, an infected pregnant woman can pass HIV to her baby during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast-feeding. People with HIV have what is called HIV infection. Most of these people will develop AIDS as a result of their HIV infection.
HIV is spread by sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles and/or syringes (primarily for drug injection) with someone who is infected, or, less commonly (and now very rarely in countries where blood is screened for HIV antibodies), through transfusions of infected blood or blood clotting factors. Babies born to HIV-infected women may become infected before or during childbirth or through breast-feeding after birth.
In the health care setting, workers have been infected with HIV after being stuck with needles containing HIV-infected blood or, less frequently, after infected blood gets into a worker’s open cut or a mucous membrane (for example, the eyes or inside of the nose). There has been only one instance of patients being infected by a health care worker in the
Q: Can it be transmitted through casual contact that occurs in the course of normal social relations?
A: No. Some people fear that HIV might be transmitted in other ways; however, no scientific evidence to support any of these fears has been found. If HIV were being transmitted through other routes (such as through air, water, or insects), the pattern of reported AIDS cases would be much different from what has been observed. For example, if mosquitoes could transmit HIV infection, many more young children and pre-adolescents would have been diagnosed with AIDS.
Casual contact through closed-mouth or social kissing, shaking hands, and talking are not a risk for transmission of HIV as well.
Q: How can AIDS be prevented?
A: Commitment to morals and the family and refraining from illicit sexual relations are the best ways to prevent AIDS.
Making proper use of personal equipment such as safety razors and disposable needles and syringes can also be effective in preventing AIDS.
SN/HG
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MNA
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