RISK FACTORS OF AIDS

For people involved in day to day activities that make them come into close contact with the HIV virus run the greatest risk of infection. The proximity to the virus may be due to professional requirements like people in the medical profession or due to choice of lifestyle. Use of infected needles during injection of drugs, blood transfusions with unclean needles and unprotected sexual intercourse all result in increasing the risk of infection with the HIV virus. Being infected with HIV does not mean that the person has contracted Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. Only when the HIV infection causes extensive damage to the immune system and the condition worsens does the onset of AIDS is diagnosed. If the person is left untreated then a HIV positive person can develop the AIDS condition within 10 years.