HIV Youth Advocates

05/05/2023

In order to spread awareness of our mission to fight stigma and discrimination towards individuals living with HIV, we, the HIV Youth Advocates, distributed flyers and pamphlets to some students of Samar State University. By giving them the facts and preventive measures for the disease, we hope to raise awareness among them about HIV and provide them with pertinent information.

21/04/2023

21/04/2023

The “Let’s Stop HIV Together” campaign includes resources and partnerships aimed at stopping HIV stigma and promoting HIV testing, prevention, and treatment.

Watch this trailer in which young adults speak about the importance of HIV testing and why they are .

Various young adults tell us about the importance of HIV testing and why they are .Comments on this video are allowed in accordance with our comment ...

21/04/2023

📌 Is the Risk of HIV Different for Different Groups?

HIV can affect anyone regardless of s*xual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender, age, or where they live.

21/04/2023

📌 How Can You Tell If You Have HIV?

The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. You can’t rely on symptoms to tell whether you have HIV.

21/04/2023

📌 How Do I Know If I Have HIV?

The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. Testing is relatively simple. You can ask your health care provider for an HIV test. Many medical clinics, substance abuse programs, community health centers, and hospitals offer them too. If you test positive, you can be connected to HIV care to start treatment as soon as possible. If you test negative, you have the information you need to take steps to prevent getting HIV in the future.

HIV self-testing is also an option. Self-testing allows people to take an HIV test and find out their result in their own home or other private location. With an HIV self-test, you can get your test results within 20 minutes. Some health departments or community-based organizations also provide HIV self-test kits for a reduced cost or for free. You can call your local health department (Contact the organization for eligibility requirements.)

21/04/2023

📌 How is HIV Not Spread?

HIV is not spread by:

Air or water
Mosquitoes, ticks, or other insects
Saliva, tears, sweat, f***s, or urine that is not mixed with the blood of a person with HIV
Shaking hands; hugging; sharing toilets; sharing dishes, silverware, or drinking glasses; or engaging in closed-mouth or “social” kissing with a person with HIV
Drinking fountains
Other s*xual activities that don’t involve the exchange of body fluids (for example, touching).
Donating blood
HIV can’t be passed through healthy, unbroken skin.

21/04/2023

📌 How Is HIV Spread from Person to Person?

HIV can only be spread through specific activities. The most common ways are:

Having va**nal or a**l s*x with someone who has HIV without using a condom the right way every time or taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV. A**l s*x is riskier than va**nal s*x for HIV transmission. Learn more about the HIV risk associated with specific s*xual activities.
Sharing injection drug equipment, such as needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment (“works”) with someone who has HIV because these items may have blood in them, and blood can carry HIV. People who inject hormones, silicone, or steroids can also get or transmit HIV by sharing needles, syringes, or other injection equipment. Learn more about HIV and injection drug use.

21/04/2023

📌 How Do You Get or Transmit HIV?

You can only get HIV by coming into direct contact with certain body fluids from a person with HIV who has a detectable viral load. These fluids are:

Blood
Semen (cum) and pre-seminal fluid (pre-cum)
Re**al fluids
Vaginal fluids
Breast milk
For transmission to occur, the HIV in these fluids must get into the bloodstream of an HIV-negative person through a mucous membrane (found in the re**um, va**na, mouth, or tip of the p***s), through open cuts or sores, or by direct injection (from a needle or syringe).

People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through s*x.

21/04/2023

📌 What Is AIDS?

AIDS is the late stage of HIV infection that occurs when the body’s immune system is badly damaged because of the virus.

A person with HIV is considered to have progressed to AIDS when:

the number of their CD4 cells falls below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (200 cells/mm3). (In someone with a healthy immune system, CD4 counts are between 500 and 1,600 cells/mm3.) OR
they develop one or more opportunistic infections regardless of their CD4 count.
Without HIV medicine, people with AIDS typically survive about 3 years. Once someone has a dangerous opportunistic illness, life expectancy without treatment falls to about 1 year. HIV medicine can still help people at this stage of HIV infection, and it can even be lifesaving. But people who start HIV medicine soon after they get HIV experience more benefits—that’s why HIV testing is so important.

21/04/2023

📌 What Is HIV?

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks cells that help the body fight infection, making a person more vulnerable to other infections and diseases. It is spread by contact with certain bodily fluids of a person with HIV, most commonly during unprotected s*x (s*x without a condom or HIV medicine to prevent or treat HIV), or through sharing injection drug equipment.

If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).

The human body can’t get rid of HIV and no effective HIV cure exists. So, once you have HIV, you have it for life.
Luckily, however, effective treatment with HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) is available. If taken as prescribed, HIV medicine can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood (also called the viral load) to a very low level. This is called viral suppression. If a person’s viral load is so low that a standard lab can’t detect it, this is called having an undetectable viral load. People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through s*x.

In addition, there are effective methods to prevent getting HIV through s*x or drug use, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), medicine people at risk for HIV take to prevent getting HIV from s*x or injection drug use, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), HIV medicine taken within 72 hours after a possible exposure to prevent the virus from taking hold. Learn about other ways to prevent getting or transmitting HIV.