There are a few terms used to understand the different phases of HIV infection: transmission, acute HIV, seroconversion illness, and, if untreated, AIDS.
Transmission:
- HIV moves from one person to another through just a few bodily fluids: blood, cum and pre-cum, anal fluid, vaginal fluid or breast milk.
- HIV can only cause infection when one of these fluids gets into another person’s body — through broken skin, the hole at the end of a guy’s cock, or in the wet linings of the body such as the inside of the ass, vagina, pee-hole or foreskin.
- It cannot be transmitted through sweat, spit, snot, piss, or any other fluid typically encountered in daily life that doesn’t have any blood in it.
- HIV can cause infection by coming into contact with your ass, front hole (vagina), penis and very rarely, your mouth. There’s lots more to know about HIV transmission and sex.
After HIV infection occurs:
- If you acquire HIV, leaving it untreated will negatively impact your health. Research is very clear that getting connected to care early is the best way to maintain your long-term health.
- HIV affects human CD4 T cells. These immune cells are important for keeping you healthy. Without treatment, HIV can replicate (or make copies of itself) inside immune cells very quickly, depleting those CD4 T cells along the way. Loss of these cells affects your whole immune system.
- If your immune system is weakened, it may not be able to fight off serious illnesses or age-related diseases as effectively.
