Some people recover from infection without treatment. There are also medicines to treat HCV infection, but no vaccine. There is a vaccine to prevent HBV infection and medicines to treat it. Infections can also be transmitted through risky sexual behaviors linked to drug use, though this is not common with HCV. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) can spread through sharing needles and other drug equipment. Each has its own way of spreading to other people and needs its own treatment. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver and can cause painful swelling and irritation, most often caused by a family of viruses: A, B, C, D, and E. Image by ©iStock/ Dr_Microbe What is hepatitis? 3 While there are medicines that help prevent the transmission and spread of HIV and its progression to AIDS, there is no vaccine yet developed for the virus, and there is no cure. More than 1.1 million people in the United States live with an HIV infection, with an estimated 162,500 who are unaware of their condition. A patient is diagnosed with AIDS when identified with one or more infections and a T cell count of less than 200. A person with a healthy immune system has a T cell count between 500 and 1,600.īeing infected with HIV does not automatically mean that it will progress to AIDS. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), is the final stage of an HIV infection when the body is unable to fend off disease. HIV lowers the number of these T cells in the immune system, making it harder for the body to fight off infections and disease. This virus infects the body's immune cells, called CD4 cells (T cells), which are needed to fight infections. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. They can also pass HIV to the baby through breastmilk. 2 Additionally, women who become infected with a virus can pass it to their baby during pregnancy, regardless of their drug use. Among females, 21 percent (about 50,000) of HIV cases were attributed to IDU. ![]() 1 In 2016, injection drug use (IDU) contributed to nearly 20 percent of recorded HIV cases among men-more than 150,000 patients. According to the CDC, one in 10 HIV diagnoses occur among people who inject drugs. ![]() This can happen with both men and women.ĭrug use and addiction have been inseparably linked with HIV/AIDS since AIDS was first identified as a disease. It happens primarily in two ways: (1) when people inject drugs and share needles or other drug equipment and (2) when drugs impair judgment and people have unprotected sex with an infected partner. ![]() This is because viruses spread through blood or other body fluids. People who engage in drug use or high-risk behaviors associated with drug use put themselves at risk for contracting or transmitting viral infections such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), or hepatitis.
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