What you need to know:
- HIV is considered a chronic but manageable disease with proper treatment.
Children who receive treatment are expected to live a normal lifespan.
- HIV has never been transmitted in normal family living conditions.
- You NEVER have to fear contracting HIV through casual contact with an HIV+ person.
- HIV is spread in three main ways: sexual contact, IV drug use through the sharing of dirty needles, mother to infant (pregnancy, birth or breast feeding.)
- All around the world orphans are overlooked for adoption because of their HIV+ status.
- Medications called ARVs can mean the difference between life and death. If Gregory is sent to an institution it is more than possible that he will not be receiving the life-saving medication he needs
- The combination of three or more ARVs is called HAART. (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy)
- With medications HIV can be effectively managed to the point that the virus is undetectable in laboratory tests.
- There is a term for the miraculous transformation HIV+ people undergo when they begin receiving the medications they need. The Lazarus Effect is a term commonly used to describe people who were once on the brink of death who have been restored again to health through medication.
Watch the amazing story of the Twietmeyer family who adopted 6 children, 2 of whom are HIV positive
