A person can have TB infection for years without any signs of disease. But if that person's immune system gets weak, the infection can quickly turn into TB disease. Also, if a person who has a weak immune system spends time with someone with infectious TB, he or she may become infected with TB bacteria and quickly develop TB disease. Because HIV infection weakens the immune system, people with TB infection and HIV infection are at very high risk of developing TB disease.

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It is impossible to get HIV infection or develop AIDS from experimental vaccines. They are not made from live HIV, killed HIV, weakened HIV, or HIV-infected cells. The investigational vaccine in this trial cannot cause HIV infection.

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, the AIDS virus) helps TB germs make you sick by attacking the germ fighters in your body. If you are infected with HIV and with TB germs, you have a very big chance of getting TB disease. The TB germs are much more likely to attack your lungs and other parts of the body. You can be cured, but it takes longer to cure someone with TB disease who also has HIV infection. If you think you might have HIV infection, talk to your doctor about getting an HIV test.

There is no need for anyone at school to know the HIV status of a student or employee. What everyone does need to understand is that the blood of any student or employee could potentially be infected with a bloodborne pathogen such as HIV or Hepatitis B, and that under normal conditions in regular educational programs, use of "Universal Precautions" is sufficient to protect against transmission of bloodborne diseases.

It is best to insert your pessary each morning and remove it for cleaning each night. Some women schedule an appointment at our office four to six times a years for an exam and pessary cleaning. Even with continuous wearing, however, vaginal infections from wearing a pessary are rare. Click here for diagrams of various Pessaries we use.

NO! There are many vaccines now in clinical study, however at this time, none have been tested on humans and it may be years before a viable vaccine is possible.

Yes. A pregnant woman can pass HIV/AIDS to her baby before or during birth. Also a mother can pass HIV/AIDS on to her baby through breast-feeding. About one out of four babies get HIV/AIDS from their mothers. The drug zidovudine (also known as AZT) is given to pregnant women with HIV/AIDS to lower their chances of passing the infection to their babies. Doctors say that all pregnant women should be tested for HIV/AIDS.

According to the CDC, prior to 1996, scientists estimated that about half the people with HIV would develop AIDS within 10 years after becoming infected. This time varied greatly from person to person and depended on many factors, including a person's health status and their health-related behaviors. Since 1996, the introduction of powerful anti-retroviral therapies has dramatically changed the progression time between HIV infection and the development of AIDS.

The only weapon we have against HIV at this time is responsible behavior based on fact. HIV is passed through blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and infants can be infected from breast milk if the mother has HIV. Cleaning IV drug needles with bleach and thoroughly rinsing with fresh water and using latex condoms with a water based lubricant greatly reduces the risk of HIV infection.

The best way to reduce risk is to always use a latex condom correctly for all sexual intercourse. If you are using injectable drugs, always use a sterile needle and never use somebody else's equipment.

A safe estimate from various studies is that the time interval between actual infection and the first positive antibody test is one to three months. The difficulty in being more definitive is pinpointing exactly when a person became infected. The longest documented time from infection to a positive EIA was eight months in a nurse who was exposed in a needle-stick accident.

The only 100% way to prevent HIV infection is to be abstinent -- from sex (vaginal, anal, oral) and from use of injection needles (drugs, tattoos, body piercing). You cannot tell by looking at someone -- or even asking someone -- if they are infected. Most people infected with HIV are asymptotic -- feel fine, look great! Therefore, there are a lot of people who are HIV positive (and don't even know it) who are having sex with a lot of people who don't know if they are even infected.

No. This is not possible as all materials used for collecting blood are sterile. In fact, persons who are healthy should come forward for voluntary blood donation.

If you are going for procedures such as tattooing, ear piercing, or acupuncture, verify that the equipment to be used on you is sterile. Avoid alcohol and drugs as they affect your judgement, and can induce you to take risks you would not otherwise take, like having unsafe sex, sharing needles, or driving rashly.

Each disease speeds up the progress of the other, and TB considerably shortens the survival time of people living with HIV/AIDS. TB kills up to half of all AIDS patients worldwide. People who are co-infected with HIV and TB are up to 50 times as likely to develop active TB in a given year as people who are HIV-negative. HIV infection is the greatest risk factor for the progression of latent TB into active TB, and TB bacteria can accelerate the progress of HIV.