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How do people get the HIV virus? Is it difficult to catch AIDS?
Your body has some power to fight disease. This is called your body's immune system. HIV is a virus that weakens the body's immune system or power to fight disease. HIV can pass from one person to another through body fluids like blood, semen, vaginal secretions, or a mother's breast milk.
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World healthcare system for the rich
A new United Nations report has found that healthcare systems across the world are becoming more unequal. The annual World Health Report, launched on October 14th by the World Health Organization (WHO), found that the healthcare gap between rich and poor people is wider today than it was thirty years ago. Even people living in the same city experience enormous differences in the quality of medical care they have access to.
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HIV causes AIDS but not everyone who has HIV looks sick. It can take from two to ten or more years before someone who is HIV+ becomes sick with AIDS. The only way to find out if someone has HIV is for them to get tested for the virus.
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HIV can pass from one person to another through unprotected sex with someone who is infected with HIV. HIV can pass from one person to another through sharing needles for drugs. HIV can also pass from a mother to her baby during pregnancy (before the baby is born) or through breast feeding, from the mother's milk. But only about 1/3 of babies of HIV+ mothers are infected this way.
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The WHO said in its report: “In far too many cases, people who are well-off and generally healthier have the best access to the best care, while the poor are left to fend for themselves.”
Perhaps the saddest conclusion of the report is that health care today is frequently treated as something which hospitals can make profits on.
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Right now, there is no way to cure AIDS. People who become infected with HIV, become sick with AIDS after six months to ten years. Eventually, they die. There are some medicines to fight AIDS, but nothing yet that cures it. Scientists around the world are trying to find a cure for AIDS.
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The WHO recommends a return to a more basic 'primary health care' system that many countries developed in the 1970s. Back then, the sick could visit a family doctor and get the treatment they needed.
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The report says healthcare no longer focuses on poorer members of society: “Health care is often delivered according to a model that concentrates on diseases, high technology, and specialist care,” it stated.
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The main way that HIV is passed from person to person is through unprotected sex with a person who is HIV infected. Thinking carefully about sex, discussing sex with your partner and trying to have safe sex (for example using a condom during sex) are some ways that chances of HIV infection can be reduced.
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WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said: “Viewed against current trends, primary health care looks more and more like a smart way to get health development back on track.”
She added: “We are, in effect, encouraging countries to go back to the basics.”
More than 100 million people are pushed below the poverty line each year because they cannot afford healthcare.
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HIV is very weak outside of the body and difficult to catch.
- You cannot catch AIDS from visiting or talking to a friend who is sick with AIDS.
- You cannot catch AIDS from hugging or kissing a friend who has HIV/AIDS.
- You cannot catch AIDS from mosquito bites or insect bites.
- You cannot catch AIDS from a toilet seat in a public restroom.
- You cannot catch AIDS from going to the same school with someone who is sick with AIDS.
- You cannot catch AIDS from being kind to someone who has AIDS.
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AIDS is an international problem which touches people in every country of the world. People with AIDS need our support and encouragement. Let's think about how we can support them!
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