DEFENSES AVAILABLE

What Can Be Done To Prevent Infections?

There currently is no vaccine to be taken before or after infection. Behaviors to help avoid infection include, avoiding sexual contact, and physical contact with any and all bodily fluids with someone who is HIV positive. Once infected, there is no way to remove HIV, there is no treatment that can be taken. Once in the clinical latency stage, you can take ART (antiretroviral therapy). ART is a medicine that can slow down the process of being diagnosed with AIDS by multiple decades. If someone chooses not to take ART, they will be diagnosed with AIDS only within a couple of years. There is also another form of medication that is able to be taken. It is called PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis), which is a pill you take daily. It is used when you want to engage in sexual contact with someone who has contracted HIV. The purpose of the pill is to stop HIV and keep it from reaching the rest of your body. The presence of the medicine in your bloodstream on a consistently daily basis keeps the virus from spreading.

​

Sources

"PrEP," CDC.gov. 12/18/18 https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/prep.html