~ Every 5 minutes one person in the world get infected with HIV.

~ Today, 36.1 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. Of these, 34.7 million are adults. 16.4 million are women, and 1.4 million are children under 15.

~ An estimated 21.8 million people have died from AIDS since the epidemic began (1982). 17.5 million were adults, including 9 million women. 4.3 million were children under 15.

~ During 2000, AIDS caused the deaths of an estimated 3 million people, including 1.3 million women and 500,000 children under 15.

~ Women are becoming increasingly affected by HIV. Approximately 47%, or 16.4 million, of the 34.7 million adults living with HIV or AIDS worldwide are women.

~ The overwhelming majority of people with HIV - approximately 95% of the global total - now live in the developing world. Of 5 people with HIV 1 is discriminated.

~ The cumulative number of AIDS cases reported to CDC is 774,467. Adult and adolescent AIDS cases total 765,559 with 635,451 cases in males and 130,104 cases in females. Through the same time period, 8,908 AIDS cases were reported in children under age 13.

~ Total deaths of persons reported with AIDS are 448,060, including 442,882 adults and adolescents, and 5,178 children under age 15, and 412 persons whose age at death is unknown.

~ There are 47.000 people with HIV living in the UK. Last year 3.617 people were diagnosed with HIV which is by 16% more than in 2000.

~ The number of people living with HIV in the UK is expected to increase by 50% in the next 5 years.

~ People living with AIDS can get very sick from common germs and infections. Hugging, holding hands, giving massages, and many other types of touching are safe for uninfected people, and needed by the person with AIDS. But others have to be careful not to spread germs that can hurt the person they are caring for.

~ A person living with AIDS does not need separate dishes, knives, forks, or spoons. Their dishes don't need special cleaning either.

~ A person with AIDS can fix food for other people. Just like everybody else who fixes food, people with AIDS should wash their hands first and not lick their fingers or the utensils while they are cooking.

~ People who are infected with HIV can look and feel healthy and may not know for years that they are infected. However, they can infect other people no matter how healthy they seem. HIV slowly wipes out parts of the body's immune system; then the HIV-infected person gets sick because the body can't fight off diseases. Some of these diseases can kill them.

~ Signs of HIV infection are like those of many other common illnesses, such as swollen glands, tiring easily, losing weight, fever, or diarrhea. Different people have different symptoms.

~ HIV is in people's blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk. The only way to tell if someone is infected with HIV is with a blood test.

~ There is no vaccine to prevent HIV infection and no cure for AIDS. There are treatments that can keep infected people healthy longer and prevent diseases that people with AIDS often get. Research is ongoing.

~ HIV slowly makes an infected person sicker and sicker. Diseases and infections will cause serious illness, but people often get better -- until the next illness. Sometimes, HIV can damage the brain and cause changes in feelings and moods, even make it hard to think clearly. Someone with AIDS can feel fine in the morning and be very sick in the afternoon. It can seem like riding a roller coaster, slowly climbing up to feeling good, then plunging down into another illness.

~ The most common ways HIV is spread are:

By having unprotected sex with one who is infected with HIV.

By sharing needles or syringes ("works") with someone who is infected with HIV.

From mothers to their babies before the baby is born, during birth, or through breast-feeding. Taking the drug AZT during pregnancy can reduce the changes of infecting the baby by two-thirds, but will not prevent all babies from becoming infected with HIV.

Earlier in the AIDS epidemic some people became infected through blood transfusions, blood products (such as clotting factors given to people with hemophilia), or organ or tissue transplants. This has been very rare in the United States since 1985, when the test for HIV was licensed. Since then, all donated blood and donors of organs or tissue are tested for HIV.

~ In a few cases, a person sharing a house with a person with HIV infection or taking care of a person with AIDS has become infected themselves. These infections may have been caused by sharing a razor, getting blood from the infected person into open cuts or sores, or some other way of having contact with blood from the infected person.

~ You don't get HIV from the air, food, water, insects, animals, dishes, knives, forks, spoons, toilet seats, or anything else that doesn't involve blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk. You don't get HIV from feces, nasal fluid, saliva, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit, unless these have blood mixed in them. You can help people with HIV eat, dress, even bathe, without becoming infected yourself.

From Moonstar: There are clinics that will test you for free or low cost and keep it anonymous. Remember if you think you've been infected they may require you to test three times within a year to make sure the virus isn't hiding. There are clinics that distribute condoms and information if you need help.

The sources:

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Telegraph.co.uk

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