There are three stages of HIV infection. With proper treatment, it is likely not to be fatal.

A friend of Huazi is engaged in public welfare work, and his main work is to help people infected with HIV. Huazi occasionally goes to help. Among the infected people, there are several college students who have been infected with AIDS because of their past indulgence.

Several young people were very confused and afraid. They were still young, but they had a "terminal disease". What would they do in the future? Huazi told them not to worry. AIDS is different now. Although it cannot be cured, as long as they insist on proper treatment, it will not affect their life expectancy and they can still enjoy a colorful life.

1. HIV will not kill you directly Most people think that AIDS is a fatal disease and that there is no cure. However, medicine has been making progress and although HIV infection cannot be completely cured, it is not incurable.

The number of AIDS-related deaths was 1.7 million in 2004, 1.1 million in 2010, and 690,000 in 2019. In other words, the threat of AIDS to humanity is declining significantly. Modern medicine has turned AIDS into a chronic disease that is not fatal.

In fact, HIV does not kill the infected person directly, but it damages the human immune system, leading to other serious infections and cancers. As long as the reproduction of HIV can be controlled, it will not affect life expectancy.

2. Three stages after HIV infection There are three stages after HIV infection.

The first stage is the acute infection stage. You may experience cold-like symptoms, or you may not experience any symptoms at all. After about 4 weeks, you will enter the next stage.

The second stage is the chronic infection stage. There are no symptoms, and if you receive appropriate treatment, you can stay in this stage indefinitely and will not enter the next stage. If you are not treated, you will enter the next stage in about 10 years, but it is also possible to suddenly progress rapidly.

The third stage is the AIDS stage. The body's immune system has been destroyed by HIV, making it easy to develop various cancers and severe infections. If untreated, the survival period is about 3 years.

3. AIDS is a "chronic disease" After being infected with HIV, the key to a long and healthy life is to maintain a low viral load. The current treatment method is mainly "cocktail therapy", which refers to the combination of multiple transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors to suppress HIV.

Although anti-HIV drugs cannot eliminate the virus, they can reduce viral replication, improve the body's immune status, and keep the infected person in the second stage for a long time without worsening the disease. Many HIV-infected people have survived for more than 20 years with the help of drugs and can still maintain good health.

In fact, AIDS is like the "three highs" chronic diseases. Although it cannot be completely cured, through reasonable treatment and regular medication, you can maintain health and it will not affect your life span.

4. Prevention of infection is the key to preventing AIDS. There are three ways of AIDS infection: sexual contact, blood contact, and mother-to-baby transmission. Normal social interactions will not infect people, such as shaking hands, hugging, eating together, and living in the same dormitory. These are all safe.

Now my country has stricter control over blood products. As long as you do not share syringes with others, it is safe. The main route of HIV transmission is sexual transmission, especially unprotected sex between men.

Therefore, as long as we keep ourselves clean, do not have unprotected sex, do not take drugs, do not share personal items such as razors and toothbrushes, and avoid contact with other people's blood and body fluids, we can avoid infection. If a woman infected with HIV becomes pregnant, she should go to an infectious disease hospital for blocking treatment to reduce the probability of transmission to the fetus.

To sum up, AIDS prevention is the key, but don't panic if you are accidentally infected. Although there is no cure for AIDS at present, with proper drug control, the disease can be controlled in the second stage for a long time and will not affect life expectancy. Learn more about AIDS and don't be afraid of the unknown. AIDS is just a non-fatal "chronic disease". I am pharmacist Huazi, welcome to follow me and share more health knowledge.