What is AIDS and do you know how to test for it?

December 1, 2023 is the 36th "World AIDS Day". This year's theme is: "Gather social forces and work together to fight AIDS." When it comes to AIDS, some people feel that it is far away from them, while others are terrified of it. So what kind of disease is AIDS?

AIDS is caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is a progressive immune deficiency characterized by a decrease in human CD4+T lymphocytes. In the later stages of the disease, it can lead to a variety of opportunistic infections, malignant tumors, and central nervous system lesions.

The source of AIDS is HIV infection and AIDS patients. The transmission routes include: sexual transmission (including homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual contact); blood transmission (including shared needles for drug injection, non-standard invasive medical operations, tattoos, etc.); mother-to-child transmission (including intrauterine infection, transmission during childbirth and breastfeeding). However, daily contact such as hugging, coughing, talking, mosquito bites, eating together and swimming will not spread AIDS.

Many people engage in risky behaviors but are unaware of their infection status, which leads to delayed treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct timely testing to understand one's own infection status, take preventive measures or receive timely treatment to avoid transmission and effectively control AIDS.

At present, the main detection methods of laboratories of professional testing institutions include antibody antigen and viral nucleic acid detection. The diagnostic technologies for detecting HIV antibodies, antigen/antibodies and nucleic acid window periods are about 3 weeks, 2 weeks and 1 week after infection, respectively, which can detect the infection of the body in a timely manner. In addition, rapid detection is easy to operate and generally detects results within 20-30 minutes. It can also meet the privacy of the tester's self-test at home. At present, the research and development of urine self-test reagents in my country has been registered by the State Food and Drug Administration. Urine self-test HIV antibodies make it more feasible to test HIV at home. However, the self-test results are not the final results and are only for reference. Those who self-test positive should go to the local CDC or qualified medical institutions for testing and confirmation.

Kind tips:

1. There is currently no vaccine to prevent AIDS, so self-prevention is the key. Strengthen moral education, keep oneself clean, avoid sexual behavior with high-risk groups, stay away from drugs, do not share needles with others, do not go to informal institutions with lax disinfection for tooth extraction, teeth cleaning, surgery, etc., do not share toothbrushes and razors with others, and do pre-pregnancy testing.

2. Once unprotected high-risk behavior occurs, taking blocking drugs in time within 72 hours can avoid infection. The earlier you take it, the better.

3. HIV is not detected immediately after it infects the human body. It takes a certain amount of time to produce enough antibodies. That is, the period from HIV infection to the detection of HIV antibodies, antigens or nucleic acids in the infected person's serum is the "window period", but the window period is also contagious. That is, a negative test during the window period cannot rule out the possibility of infection. In general, if there is no high-risk behavior for HIV within 12 weeks and the test is negative, the possibility of infection can be basically ruled out. If you are still worried about being infected, you can continue to increase the frequency of testing.

4. HIV testing and consulting agencies will not disclose the privacy of consultants and will maintain absolute confidentiality.

5. Once confirmed positive, antiviral treatment should be received as soon as possible. The state provides free antiviral drugs, which can delay the disease, prolong life, improve the quality of life, and reduce the occurrence of complications. (Author: Lao Xiufang, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Yangxin County, Shandong Province)