It’s been greater than 30 years since a illness now referred to as AIDS was first acknowledged in the US. Again then, it was thought of a dying sentence. No therapies have been accessible, its trigger was unknown, and other people usually died inside just a few months after being recognized. Right now, folks contaminated with HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—can dwell full, wholesome lives, largely due to medicines and different discoveries made with NIH assist.

The phrases HIV and AIDS might be complicated, as a result of they’re associated however completely different. HIV is a virus that harms your immune system by invading after which destroying your infection-fighting white blood cells. AIDS is the ultimate stage of an untreated HIV an infection. Individuals with AIDS can have a variety of signs, as a result of their weakened immune methods put them in danger for life-threatening infections and cancers.

HIV virus passes from one individual to a different by means of sure physique fluids, corresponding to blood and semen. About 90% of latest HIV infections within the U.S. happen throughout intercourse. Shared needles and injection drug use is the second commonest route of an infection. HIV may unfold from an contaminated mom to her new child. HIV isn’t unfold by means of informal contact, corresponding to shaking fingers, hugging, sneezing, sharing utensils, or utilizing bogs.

Right now, by taking a mixture of HIV-fighting medicines (referred to as antiretroviral remedy), fewer Individuals with HIV are growing AIDS. And a few HIV infections can now be prevented by taking each day medicines (referred to as PrEP).

Due to these advances, some folks might imagine that there’s little must be involved about HIV and AIDS. However nothing could possibly be farther from the reality. Nationwide, greater than 1 million persons are contaminated with HIV, and annually over 50,000 extra turn into newly contaminated. About 1 in 7 Individuals who’ve HIV don’t even notice they’re contaminated, so they might be unknowingly spreading the virus to others. The issue is much more extreme in growing nations, particularly in components of Africa.

Despite the fact that therapies and prevention methods can maintain HIV in test, there’s nonetheless no remedy and no vaccine to forestall HIV infections. That’s why NIH-funded scientists proceed to seek for new, simpler methods to halt HIV infections.

“In the event you get a prognosis of HIV an infection, and you start antiretroviral remedy in a well timed trend, earlier than your immune system turns into considerably compromised, your prognosis is great,” says Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, NIH’s infectious illness chief, who first started treating AIDS sufferers within the early Nineteen Eighties. Research present that with early remedy, HIV ranges might turn into so low that the virus turns into undetectable within the blood. That lengthens life and reduces the chance of spreading HIV to others. “If those that are contaminated keep on remedy, they’ll save their very own lives and likewise assist maintain HIV from infecting their sexual companions,” Fauci says.

Retaining HIV infections in test requires early prognosis and taking each day HIV medicines for all times. Even when it’s undetectable within the blood, as soon as an individual’s been contaminated with HIV, it stays ceaselessly hidden within the physique. “HIV has the flexibility to combine itself into your cells and conceal in an inactive type, referred to as a reservoir,” says Fauci. Though medicines can maintain virus ranges low, they don’t filter the viral reservoir. So if remedy lapses, HIV comes out of hiding and rushes again into the bloodstream.

For some folks, maintaining with this each day well being routine could be a problem. Nationwide, fewer than 1 in 3 folks with HIV takes antiretroviral medicines usually sufficient to scale back the virus to undetectable ranges. That’s why ongoing NIH-funded research are creating and evaluating medicines that may be taken much less usually, corresponding to as soon as a month. This method shall be examined in a big medical trial anticipated to start in Africa later this 12 months. Different approaches that don’t rely on each day anti-HIV medication are additionally being examined.

Analysis over the previous few a long time has recognized preventive methods that work: restrict your variety of sexual companions, by no means share needles, and use condoms appropriately and usually. NIH can be exploring new methods to forestall HIV infections, together with experimental vaccines.

One preventive method for folks at elevated threat for HIV an infection entails taking a each day dose of an antiretroviral drug. “When it comes to prevention, a game-changer that we’ve acquired proper now could be pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP,” says Dr. Carl W. Dieffenbach, who heads NIH’s world analysis efforts in HIV/AIDS. “This technique protects you from getting contaminated with HIV should you take the medicine each day.”