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HIV/AIDS
Disclaimer:
This site contains HIV prevention information that may not be appropriate
for all audiences. Since HIV infection is spread primarily through sexual
practices or by sharing needles, prevention messages and programs may
address these topics. If you are not seeking such information or may be
offended by such materials, please exit this website.
We understand the complex and diverse needs of
the populations we serve. Not everyone is able or willing to come to us. We realize that we need to reach individuals in
their lives as they live them - on their own terms, often outside our walls. |
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The Sharing Community's various outreach
teams actively seek out individuals in the community - in abandoned
buildings, in parks and on the streets - and offer resources designed to
reduce risks to their health. We seek out those who are engaged in high-risk
activities such as sex workers and substance users and provide them with HIV
counseling and testing, education, prevention strategies and assistance with
needed services.
About the disease
What is HIV/AIDS?
Sources: From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HIV
and Its Treatment: What You Should Know Health Information for Patients Fact
Sheet
October 2004 and the New York State Department of
Health.
A positive HIV test result means that you are infected with HIV (Human
Immunodeficiency Virus), the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome). Being infected with HIV does not mean that you have
AIDS right now. However, if left untreated, HIV infection damages a person’s
immune system and can progress to AIDS.
AIDS is the most serious stage of HIV infection. It results from the
destruction of the infected person's immune system. Your immune system is
your body's defense system. Cells of your immune system fight off infection
and other diseases. If your immune system does not work well, you are at
risk for serious and life-threatening infections and cancers. HIV attacks
and destroys the disease-fighting cells of the immune system, leaving the
body with a weakened defense against infections and cancer.
The immune system protects the body from infections and
disease, but has no clear way to protect it from HIV. Over time, most people
infected with HIV become less able to fight off the germs that we are all
exposed to every day. Many of these germs do not usually make a healthy
person sick, but they can cause life-threatening infections and cancers in a
person whose immune system has been weakened by HIV. People infected with
HIV may have no symptoms for 10 or more years. They may not know they are
infected. An HIV Test is the only way to find out if you have HIV.
HIV spreads when infected blood, semen, vaginal
fluids, or breast milk gets into the bloodstream of another person
through:
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direct entry into a blood
vessel;
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mucous linings, such as
the vagina, rectum, penis, mouth, eyes, or nose, or
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a break in the skin.
HIV is not
spread through saliva (spit).
HIV is spread through:
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Vaginal, anal, or oral sex
without using a condom.
-
Sharing needles, syringes,
or works to inject drugs, vitamins, hormones, steroids, or
medicines.
-
Women with HIV infection
can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy, delivery, and
breastfeeding.
-
People who are exposed to
blood and/or body fluids at work, like health care workers, may be
exposed to HIV through needle-sticks or other on-the-job exposures.
It may also be possible to pass HIV through sharing
needles for piercing or tattooing. A person infected with HIV can pass
the virus to others during these activities. This is true even if the
person:
-
has no symptoms of HIV
-
has not been diagnosed
with AIDS
-
is taking HIV medications
-
has an "undetectable"
viral load
HIV is not spread by casual contact like sneezing,
coughing, eating or drinking from common utensils, shaking hands,
hugging, or use of restrooms and drinking fountains.
AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) is a late stage of HIV disease. There are medications
that have helped people living with HIV or AIDS live longer, healthier
lives. Some people have lived for more than 20 years and have taken
medicines for more than 10 years. But, there is no cure.
Other links of interest:
National Institutes of Health
S.A.M.H.S.A.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration of the (Federal) Department of Health and Human Services,
recently approved its support of The Sharing Community's HIV
initiative. This project will enable us to reach an even wider group of
individuals - primarily substance users - who are at-risk. It will also
enable us to fund additional Spanish-speaking staff in two local substance
abuse treatment programs, and to conduct a vigorous process and outcomes
evaluations of our strategy.
For more information about our HIV/AIDS
programs call us 914-963-2626
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