About half of HIV infections worldwide occur among people 25 years and younger. HIV is a virus that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV slowly damages the body’s immune system, reducing its ability to fight other diseases. People can live with HIV for many years without any symptoms of infection. Eventually they develop AIDS, the condition when the body’s immune system breaks down and is unable to fight certain infections. There is no cure for HIV infections, but anti-retroviral drugs (ARV therapy) can slow how the disease progresses, improves the health of HIV patients and prolongs their life expectancy.
HIV transmission occurs through sexual intercourse with infected person, blood transfusion (using contaminated blood), drug injections by using contaminated needles, mother to child transmission during labor and childbirth.