HIV / AIDS

(HealthDayNews) -- Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is passed from person to person through exchange of body fluids like blood, semen and vaginal fluid.

According to Seton Hall University in New Jersey, risk factors for infection include:

• Sex of any type with an infected person.
• A history of a sexually transmitted disease, such as herpes, gonorrhea or syphilis.
• Multiple sex partners.
• Sex with a prostitute, either male or female.
• Sex with a man if you are male.
• Shared use of needles and syringes to inject drugs.
• Blood product transfusions between 1978 and 1985.

If you have one or more of the above risk factors, you should be tested for HIV infection.

-- Felicity Stone