RAD and Deaf Rainbow UK: Testing for HIV and AIDS (BSL)

*Content warning: Sexual health*
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This video is part of a series produced in partnership with Deaf Rainbow UK.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus); virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome); name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by HIV virus.
While AIDS cannot be transmitted from one person to another, HIV virus can.
There's currently no cure for HIV, but there are very effective drug treatments that enable most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life.
With an early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any AIDS-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan.
Symptoms:
Most experience a short flu-like illness for two-six weeks after HIV infection, which lasts for a week or two.
After symptoms disappear, HIV may not cause any symptoms for many years, although virus continues to damage your immune system; many people with HIV do not know they're infected.
Anyone who thinks they could have HIV should get tested.
Causes of HIV infection
HIV is found in the body fluids of an infected person; semen, vaginal, anal fluids, blood and breast milk.
It's a fragile virus and does not survive outside the body for long.
HIV cannot be transmitted through sweat, urine or saliva.
Most common way of getting HIV in the UK;  through having anal or vaginal sex without a condom.
Other ways of getting HIV include:
Sharing needles, syringes or other injecting equipment.
Transmission from mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.
Chance of getting HIV through oral sex is very low and will be dependent on many things, such as whether you receive or give oral sex and the oral hygiene of the person giving the oral sex.
Diagnosing HIV
Seek medical advice ASAP if you think you might have been exposed to HIV.
Get tested at; a GP surgery, sexual health clinics.
HIV test; involves testing a sample of your blood or saliva for signs of the infection.
Be aware that:
Emergency anti-HIV medicine called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) may stop you becoming infected if started within 72 hours of possible exposure to the virus- it's recommended that you start it ASAP, ideally within 24 hours.
Early diagnosis means you can start treatment sooner, which can improve your chances of controlling the virus, reduce the risk of becoming more unwell and reduce the chance of passing the virus on.
Both positive and negative HIV tests may need to be repeated one-three months after potential exposure to HIV infection (window period), but you should not wait this long to seek help:
Clinics may offer a finger prick blood test, which can give you a result in minutes, but it may take up to a few days to get the results of a more detailed HIV test.
Home testing or home sampling kits are available to buy online or from pharmacies..
If your first test suggests you have HIV, a further blood test will need to be carried out to confirm the result.
If positive, you'll be referred to a specialist HIV clinic for some more tests and a discussion about treatment options.
Treatment for HIV
Antiretroviral medicines are used to treat HIV. They work by stopping the virus replicating in the body, allowing the immune system to repair itself and preventing further damage.
These come in the form of tablets, which need to be taken every day.
HIV is able to develop resistance to a single HIV medicine very easily, but taking a combination of different medicines makes this much less likely.
Most people with HIV take a combination of medicines. It's vital these are taken every day as recommended by your doctor.
The goal of HIV treatment is to have an undetectable viral load. This means the level of HIV virus in your body is low enough to not be detected by a test.
Living with HIV
Taking effective HIV treatment and being undetectable significantly reduces your risk of passing HIV on.
Encouraged to:
Healthy diet
Yearly flu jabs
Preventing HIV
Anyone who has sex without a condom or shares needles is at risk.
Many effective ways to prevent/reduce risk, including:
Using a condom
PEP
PrRP
Treatment for HIV to reduce the viral load to undetectable
If use drugs, never share needles/injecting equipment.
Speak to local sexual health clinic or a GP for further advice.
All information from NHS website: HIV and AIDS - NHS www.nhs.uk
For more information, please email or send a BSL video to:
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RAD BSL Information Hub: bit.ly/4c5Id3P
www.royaldeaf.org.uk/informat...
Deaf Rainbow UK website: www.deafrainbowuk.org.uk/