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The Cause of AIDS

The virus that causes AIDS is called H.I.V., which is short for Human Immune-deficiency Virus. This virus kills important blood cells that defend the body against all kinds of sickness. When a lot of these cells have been destroyed, the body cannot fight off infections. If the infections are strong, the person may die.

The virus, HIV, lives in blood. It is also found in body fluids that always contain blood cells: semen from men, vaginal and cervical fluids from women. So, if the person has the AIDS virus in their blood, then their semen or vaginal and cervical fluids will contain the AIDS virus also.

If the person is infected, the AIDS virus is in:

• Blood (or anything with blood in it)
  
  
• Semen from men
  
  
• Vaginal or cervical fluids from women

To avoid catching the virus from an infected person, don’t let their blood, semen or vaginal/cervical fluids make contact with your body.

These infected fluids need to get into a person’s bloodstream to cause an infection. The infected fluids enter the body in two ways:

1. If the person has an open cut in the skin, even a small one, like a hang nail, a paper cut, dry and cracked skin or an open pimple.
   
   
2. If it lands on “naturally wet” skin, like
   
   
   • the mouth,
     
     
   • inside the nose,
     
     
   • the vagina,
     
     
   • the opening on the penis,
     
     
   • the rectum, or
     
     
   • the eyeball

The infected fluid seeps through this naturally wet skin very quickly and enters the blood directly.

Most cases of HIV infection happen because of sexual contact. Infected blood, semen or vaginal/cervical fluids land on moist, naturally wet skin, or on an open cut, and the infected fluids get into the person’s bloodstream. It is easier for a woman to pass or be infected with HIV when she has a vaginal infection, like yeast, chlamydia or herpes sores.

To prevent transmission, there must be a barrier that will keep the infected fluids away from the naturally wet skin called “mucosa.” Latex rubber, the kind that is used in condoms and in latex gloves, will stop the infected fluids from passing through it and into another person’s body. This is why health care workers routinely wear latex rubber gloves at work when there is a chance that blood, or some other fluid with blood in it, can get on their hands.

So, to prevent the spread of HIV infection, put a LATEX barrier between EVERYTHING in the left column and EVERYWHERE in the right column.

The rule is the same everywhere. It applies for any sexual contact and it also applies for the workplace, especially for health care. If your job puts you in contact with anything in the left column, you should always use the latex barrier to protect yourself from infection.

Barriers, like condoms (rubbers) and gloves should be made of latex rubber for the best protection. However, it is important to know that oil-based products like petroleum jelly and lotions cannot be used with latex rubber products because oil products will weaken the latex and cause the latex to break.

The AIDS virus can also be transmitted if someone shares an injection needle or any other skin piercing needle with an infected person. This includes tattooing needles and needles used for ear or other body piercing. If an infected person uses a needle to pierce their skin, there will be tiny amounts of blood left on the needle. If another person uses that same needle to pierce their skin, they will be pushing the infected blood from the infected person into their body. This can transmit the AIDS virus.

People need to know that sharing needles is very dangerous. A person who uses another individual’s needle can be getting an infection from them. It can be the AIDS virus or some other disease like Hepatitis (“yellow jaundice”). If someone uses needle drugs, they need to get off the drugs as quickly as possible. It’s not only the drugs that can kill them, it can be AIDS too.

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