Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection remains being a very serious health issues nowadays at some places of the world. Until 2016, about 36.7 million people are living with HIV around the world and an estimated number of 35 million people have died from AIDS-related illness. (“Fact sheet – Latest statistics on the status of the AIDS epidemic”, 2018). HIV is transmitted mainly through three ways, blood transmission, perinatal transmission and sexual transmission.
For sexual transmission, HIV is being transmitted if there is any contact with sexual fluids that have been infected like genital or oral mucous membranes. This is mostly happening when people have an unprotected sex. Unprotected sex is generally having sex without any protection such as condoms, including oral sex, or sharing of sex tools with people who are diagnosed with HIV. Transmission through sexual contact accounts for 75 to 85 percent of the nearly 28 million infections with the human immunodeficiency virus (Royce, Seña, Cates & Cohen, 1997).
A mother can also transmit HIV through perinatal transmission or also known as mother-to-child transmission. This occurs during pregnancy, childbirth and through breastfeeding. In the absence of treatment, the risk for perinatal transmission of HIV is as high as 25-30% (“HIV in Pregnancy: Overview, Epidemiology, Prophylaxis and Pregnancy Outcome”, 2018). The exact mechanism remains unknown. It may occur during delivery, intrauterine life or even breastfeeding. The biggest risk factor for vertical transmission is thought to be advanced maternal disease, likely due to a high maternal HIV viral load (Garcia et al., 1999).
HIV can be transmitted through blood transmission as well. People who inject drugs by reusing syringes that are contaminated with HIV-infected blood are extremely hazardous. In Western countries, the second largest group of AIDS patients after the homosexual male group is that of the intravenous drug abuser, which habitually inject drugs into their veins and share syringes or needles or even re-use them without proper sterilization (Schoub, 2000). According to Murrell (2018), the risk of transmitting HIV through transfusion of blood is extremely low in developed countries due to meticulous screening and precautions (Daniel Murrell, 2018).
Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection remains being a very serious health issues nowadays at some places of the world. Until 2016, about 36.7 million people are living with HIV around the world and an estimated number of 35 million people have died from AIDS-related illness. (“Fact sheet – Latest statistics on the status of the AIDS epidemic”, 2018). HIV is transmitted mainly through three ways, blood transmission, perinatal transmission and sexual transmission.
For sexual transmission, HIV is being transmitted if there is any contact with sexual fluids that have been infected like genital or oral mucous membranes. This is mostly happening when people have an unprotected sex. Unprotected sex is generally having sex without any protection such as condoms, including oral sex, or sharing of sex tools with people who are diagnosed with HIV. Transmission through sexual contact accounts for 75 to 85 percent of the nearly 28 million infections with the human immunodeficiency virus (Royce, Seña, Cates & Cohen, 1997).
A mother can also transmit HIV through perinatal transmission or also known as mother-to-child transmission. This occurs during pregnancy, childbirth and through breastfeeding. In the absence of treatment, the risk for perinatal transmission of HIV is as high as 25-30% (“HIV in Pregnancy: Overview, Epidemiology, Prophylaxis and Pregnancy Outcome”, 2018). The exact mechanism remains unknown. It may occur during delivery, intrauterine life or even breastfeeding. The biggest risk factor for vertical transmission is thought to be advanced maternal disease, likely due to a high maternal HIV viral load (Garcia et al., 1999).
HIV can be transmitted through blood transmission as well. People who inject drugs by reusing syringes that are contaminated with HIV-infected blood are extremely hazardous. In Western countries, the second largest group of AIDS patients after the homosexual male group is that of the intravenous drug abuser, which habitually inject drugs into their veins and share syringes or needles or even re-use them without proper sterilization (Schoub, 2000). According to Murrell (2018), the risk of transmitting HIV through transfusion of blood is extremely low in developed countries due to meticulous screening and precautions (Daniel Murrell, 2018).