Acquired Immune Deficiency Sy... : Prevention

See the article on safe sex to learn how to reduce the chance of acquiring or spreading HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Try not to use injected drugs. If IV drugs are used, do not share needles or syringes. Many communities now have ...

As of 2001, there is no vaccine effective against AIDS. Several vaccines are currently being investigated, however, both to prevent initial HIV infection and as a therapeutic treatment to prevent HIV from progressing to full-blown AIDS. In the mea...

As of 2000, there is no vaccine effective against HIV/AIDS. Several vaccines are being investigated, however, both to prevent initial HIV infection and as a therapeutic treatment to prevent HIV from progressing to full-blown AIDS. Several types of...

As of 2000, there is no vaccine effective against AIDS. Several vaccines to prevent initial HIV infection and disease progression are being tested. In 2002, reports showed a new "library" vaccine showed potential. The vaccine is composed of up to ...

Because no vaccine for HIV is available, the only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid behaviors that put a person at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex. Many people infected with HIV have no symptom...

Prevention of HIV infections is deceptively simple: Refrain from having sexual contact and from sharing drug-injecting paraphernalia with anyone who is infected. However, the rapid and continuing global spread of HIV, despite its well-known and se...

Safe sex means taking precautions during sex that can keep you from getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), or from giving an STD to your partner. These diseases include genital herpes, genital warts, HIV, Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, and others.

Detailed safer sex guidelines for sexually transmitted disease prevention

Detailed safer sex guidelines for sexually transmitted disease prevention

Detailed safer sex guidelines for sexually transmitted disease prevention

Detailed safer sex guidelines for sexually transmitted disease prevention

These are procedures to be followed by all staff who are caring for a patient believed to be harboring a highly contagious dangerous pathogen, such as AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), that is transmitted in blood, blood products, and other body fluids. Universal precautions were described in directives and guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1987, and in standards published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1991. Revisions are published from time to time in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) . Universal precautions in care of patients are an enhanced form of barrier nursing, but they are used also in handling pathology specimens that are known or suspected to be infected with dangerous pathogens. All medical, nursing, and laboratory staff, including mortuary attendants, wear gloves, waterproof aprons, gowns, masks, and protective eye shields to prevent exposure to pathogens of potential portals of entry for infection (nose, mouth, mucous surfaces, conjunctival membranes, abrasions and lacerations on the skin, etc.). Specific precautions are set out for surgical, obstetric, and invasive diagnostic procedures, renal dialysis, dentistry, and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Surgical gloves must be worn when performing simple procedures such as drawing blood from veins and conducting intra-oral examination or manipulation. OSHA standards include procedures for cleaning and disposing of used surgical equipment, needles, and laundry, and for disposal of contaminated waste. Universal precautions are intended to supplement, not replace routine infection-control procedures, such as handwashing and the use of surgical gloves, and do not eliminate the need for other categories of disease-specific isolation measures, such as isolation procedures that are used for open pulmonary tuberculosis and "enteric" procedures used for cases of infectious diarrhea. Some patient advocates at first regarded the use of universal precautions as actually or potentially stigmatizing—tending to label patients as "contaminated" and therefore "bad," but this attitude has been overcome by careful explanation and the use of educational material. J OHN M. L AST ( SEE ALSO : Barrier Nursing ; Sterilization )

The Precautionary Principle is referred to in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; the declaration includes the principle, "Nations shall use the precautionary approach to protect the environment. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, scientific uncertainty shall not be used to postpone cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation." This idea is being increasingly invoked as a rationale for environmental health policy, including its formal appearance in international treaties. The Precautionary Principle, along with terms such as "sustainable development," expresses a broad approach for which there is general support and agreement. However, as with sustainable development, it is a term that is often difficult to crisply define, and its implications to specific issues are not easily agreed upon. Three elements appear to be central to the Precautionary Principle. First, there must be some factual basis that raises a legitimate reason for concern; second, there is no certainty as to whether the concern will turn out to be justified—or whether the proposed remedy will be effective; and third, the remedy has a reasonably substantial economic or societal cost. There is some debate as to whether the Precautionary Principle is an alternative to risk assessment or whether the two approaches are mutually complementary. In retrospect, there have been many past governmental actions that clearly rank as precautionary, without the term "Precautionary Principle" being invoked. Examples include the use of maximal available control technology for hazardous air pollutants, or ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) for radiation protection. B ERNARD D. G OLDSTEIN ( SEE ALSO : Environmental Determinants of Health ; Environmental Justice ; Environmental Movement ; Environmental Protection Agency ; Risk Assessment, Risk Management )

Universal precautions are safety procedures established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Dental Association (ADA).

Caging a Killer: Fighting AIDS for Two DecadesOften called the president's lead physician in the war against AIDS, Eric P. Goosby, M.D., has been a leading AIDS researcher for nearly two decades.