There are several theories being debated but nobody really knows the origin of HIV.
No. Researchers have come a long way in understanding HIV and how it works, and they have developed a range of very effective drugs that attack and can slow down the reproduction of the virus and amount of HIV in the body, but this is not the same as a cure.
If HIV is in your body, doctors cannot get rid of it. Thanks to these new drugs, people are living a lot longer and the number of deaths has dropped dramatically. But the drugs are not guaranteed to work and even if they do there is strict guidance that you will need to stick to.
A person who is HIV positive will not automatically develop AIDS. Several factors can influence the development of AIDS. These can include your levels of stress and nutrition, how damaged your immune system is and if you are on any medication.
In a lot of cases, yes, you can. If the country doesn`t require you to have a visa, no one will check on your HIV status and it is perfectly OK for you to go there. This includes all EU countries.
The US is not quite so clear-cut. If you apply for a visa, current law states that you will be deemed ineligible if you are HIV positive. This immigration service, however, can waive the ineligibility under certain circumstances (i.e. temporary stay).
Many countries (especially many in the Middle East and South America) require proof of negative HIV status if you plan to stay for a certain length of time or seek employment or permanent residency. And way down the other end of the scale, there are a few countries (e.g. Yemen) that deport anyone known to have HIV.
If you are thinking of going overseas, it is strongly advisable to plan your trip as far in advance as possible and check out your intended destinations. The National AIDS Helpline can help with this.
Highly unlikely. It`s true that in the early days of the epidemic some people contracted the virus through blood transfusions. However, since 1985 strict guidelines have been in place to reduce the possibility of it happening again and they have been almost 100% successful. The two main barriers to this route of transmission are the screening of all donated blood for the virus and an exemption from people considered to be at a high-risk of HIV infection from donating blood. Of the 196 cases of people who have ever contracted HIV through blood transfusions in the UK, only 4 did so since 1985.
Anal sex without a condom is a high risk activity. In technical terms, less risk is involved for the active (insertive) partner, but this should not be taken to mean that he is not at risk at all. Anal penetration is an activity that can quite easily cause trauma (damage) to the anus of the receptive partner, and/or the penis of the insertive partner. Unless you can be 100% sure that both men involved are HIV negative, then anal sex without a condom is going to carry with it some level of risk of transmitting HIV.
What is important is they kind of sex you have, not necessarily how many people you have it with. The more partners you have may put you at risk of exposure to other sexually transmitted infections.
