To contract the aids virus do u have to get hiv first or does it go into full blown aids first

Not Medical Advice: The terms “HIV” and “AIDS” can be confusing because both words refer to the same disease. Though, “HIV” denotes to the virus itself, “AIDS” denotes to the late stage of HIV infection, when an HIV-infected individual’s immune system is severely damaged and has struggle fighting diseases and certain cancers.

Before the development of certain medicines, persons with HIV could progress to AIDS in just a few years.

However nowadays, most individuals who are HIV-positive do not progress to AIDS. That’s because if you have HIV and you take ART (antiretroviral therapy) constantly, you can keep the level of HIV in your body low. This will aid in keeping your body strong and healthy and decrease the likelihood that you will ever progress to AIDS. Furthermore, it will help lower your risk of transmitting HIV to others.

About 50,000 new HIV infections happen in the United States each year. In the U.S., HIV is spread primarily by:

• Having sex with somebody who has HIV.
• Sharing syringes, needles, rinse water, or other equipment (“works”) used to prepare injection drugs with someone who has HIV.

National HIV Testing Day provides an excellent opportunity to focus attention on the urgent need for people, especially those who are at high risk of infection, to know their HIV status. HIV testing is the first step in a strategy to detect, treat, and prevent HIV/AIDS.

While the number of new HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infections in America has declined significantly since the peak of the epidemic in the mid-1980s, it has held steady at approximately 50,000 new HIV infections per year for the past decade. Read more at The Huffington Post.