When a person receives the news that they are infected with HIV, they have to be thinking, “How did I get it?” HIV is only spread through direct exposure to infected blood. This includes sexual contact, sharing of needles or syringes used for intravenous drugs, blood transfusions, or from an infected mother to her baby, either by childbirth or breast-feeding. Transmission through blood transfusions is very rare today, because of the extensive testing of the nation’s blood supply. However, before testing was required, many people, especially hemophiliacs, received HIV through tainted blood. Also, only about thirty percent of the children born to HIV-positive mothers actually become infected themselves.

The AIDS epidemic is expanding at a rapid rate. At first, HIV infection in the United States was concentrated in the homosexual community and in individuals who received blood products, such as those with

After being infected with HIV, the development of AIDS goes through several stages that are very slow and painful. Progressing from HIV infection to full-blown AIDS can take six to ten years. There have even been cases where HIV has laid dormant for twelve years. Doctors can monitor this progression by the falling number of T-cells, which are the major type of white blood cells. This progression can last ten years or more. Even though T-cell levels are low to normal and the person is in good health, the HIV continues to reproduce, destroying the immune system. The next phase is called the early symptomatic phase. The level of T-cells falls quickly, and the person gets opportunistic diseases that are not life-threatening. Opportunistic diseases are infections that attack because the immune system is no longer able to protect the body. Next, the person enters a late symptomatic phase. It may also last months or years. The person endures destruction of the immune system and serious illnesses. The T-cell levels continue to fall. Many people in this stage experience severe weight loss and debilitating exhaustion. They also have more opportunistic diseases. There are more than twenty opportunistic infections, including a type of pneumonia caused by a fungus normally found in the airways of all people, bacterial infections, other fungal infections

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