World AIDS Day 2016: 7 facts about HIV/AIDS

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome virus which weakens the person’s immune system by destroying the cells. HIV and AIDS are not the same thing: A person living with HIV has the Human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus in their body. AIDS occurs when the immune system is so weak it can no longer fight off a range of diseases with which it would normally cope. Globally, an estimated 36 million people live with the HIV syndrome. At least two million of them are children. Key ways to prevent HIV transmission include safe sexual behaviors i.e. using condoms; get tested and treated for sexually transmitted infections. Although there is no known cure for AIDS yet, there are medications that can help fight the effect and allow people living with the virus live a normal life. Between 2000 and 2015, the HIV infections have fallen by 35 percent globally, and the Aids-related has decreased to 24 percent. World AIDS Day was celebrated for the first time in 1988.