Health Tip: Are You at Risk for AIDS?

by Felicity Stone


(HealthDay News) -- Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is passed from person to person through exchange of body fluids like blood, semen and vaginal fluid.

According to Seton Hall University in New Jersey, risk factors for infection include:

1. Sex of any type with an infected person.
2. A history of a sexually transmitted disease, such as herpes, gonorrhea or syphilis.
3. Multiple sex partners.
4. Sex with a prostitute, either male or female.
5. Sex with a man if you are male.
6. Shared use of needles and syringes to inject drugs.
7. Blood product transfusions between 1978 and 1985.
8. If you have one or more of the above risk factors, you should be tested for HIV infection.

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note: I wonder why? Is it because they believe the immunity system is not strong enough and that's why those of us who live with herpes got it? I always was under the impression that herpes was not a bloodborn virus but a nerve virus and that AIDS/HIV is a bloodborn virus. Are they simply assuming that if a person has herpes, that they had many sexual partners? If so, this sure might make some people very leary and freaked out. I personally find this hard to believe.