 What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV - the Human Immunodeficiency Virus - is a virus that attacks the immune system, resulting in a chronic, progressive illness that leaves people vulnerable to opportunistic infections and cancers. When the body can no longer fight infection, the disease is known as AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. On average, it takes more than 10 years to progress from initial HIV infection to AIDS.
AIDS is a deadly disease that has already killed more than 20 million people around the world, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) . There is no cure for AIDS, and no vaccine against HIV infection.
In order to be infected, the virus must enter a person's bloodstream (HIV cannot survive outside the body). HIV is transmitted from one person to another through:
- unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal or oral)
- shared needles or equipment for injecting drugs
- unsterilized needles for tattooing, skin piercing or acupuncture
- pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding (i.e., from an HIV-infected mother to her infant)
- occupational exposure in health care settings
Despite the fact that HIV infection is largely preventable, thousands of new infections occur each year and the number of persons living with HIV in Canada is rising. The Public Health Agency of Canada estimates that 58,000 people in Canada were living with HIV infection at the end of 2005 - a 16 per cent increase from the 2002 estimate of 50,000. An estimated 27 per cent of these individuals - or 15,800 people - were believed to be unaware of their infection and thus were not seeking treatment and may have been unknowingly infecting others.
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A Brief History of HIV/AIDS in Canada