It’s all over the world. We’ve all heard about it. We’re scared of it. There’s no cure for it. We buy products to help people living with it. But how much do we really know about HIV?

HIV — human immunodeficiency virus — is a virus that is contracted through bodily fluids. It attacks the body’s immune system and prevents its ability to fight off diseases.

AIDS and HIV are not the same thing. HIV is the virus, while AIDS — acquired immune deficiency syndrome — is a clinical diagnosis, according to Justin Smith, the project coordinator of Style at UNC-CH school of medicine.

He said a person with HIV is diagnosed with AIDS after their T cells drop below 200, or they have an opportunistic infection. Opportunistic infections take advantage of the body’s weakened immune system and cause the person to become sicker than a HIV-negative person would.

A person can live with HIV for years before being diagnosed with AIDS. When a person first finds out they’re HIV-positive, they could have had it so long without knowing that they are immediately diagnosed with AIDS.

Smith said he worked with someone recently who only had 34 T cells when she first found out she was HIV-positive. He said she had probably been infected for a while and just didn’t know it.

This is why it is important to know one’s status, according to Smith. Knowing one’s status means getting tested regularly, so people can stay well-informed about their body.

“The earlier someone finds out in the course of the infection, the better,” Smith said.

Stephanie Sobol, the associate director for Health Promotion, agreed. She said the sooner people know their status, the better.

“Knowledge is probably one of the best defenses,” she said.

If someone finds out they are HIV-positive, the next step would be to figure out what medications, if any, to begin taking. According to Smith, people don’t always immediately begin taking medications.

However, once people begin taking medication, it is important for them to take it consistently and for the full time they are supposed to, according to Smith. He said when people stop taking their medication is when mutations in the strains of HIV occur. After that, if the person transmits HIV to someone else, the other person has received a strain of the virus that is immune to the medication the other one was taking.

The goal of the medications is to slow the process of the virus and lessen the conditions of the virus, Sobol said. She said the virus outsmarts the medical community and mutates often. The medications are good, but the medical community has to work hard to tackle the different mutations and strains of the virus, she said.

According to Smith, there are two basic types of HIV — HIV-1 and HIV-2. In each of those, there are subtypes and in each subtype, there are different strains in each of those, due to mutations.

However, Smith said as far as the medical world knows, the subtypes don’t make a difference in how the virus is treated. The subtypes do pose a problem for trying to develop a vaccine though.

Developing a vaccine is difficult because there are so many different strains of the virus. Smith said it is hard to develop a vaccine that would recognize all the different strains. He said the medical community has not figured out consistent regions of HIV for a vaccine to respond to.

However, Smith said even though the medical community is getting closer to providing more solutions and prevention methods, he doesn’t think it is close to finding a cure.

“We’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s certainly a lot more we need to do,” Smith said.

One progress Sobol would like to see is a more informed society.

“Being informed rather than misinformed is important,” she said.

She said people are scared of getting pregnant, but they are more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease than become pregnant. She said there is only a small window of opportunity to get pregnant, so that should be the least of one’s worries.

“[STDs] are 24/7 and just love a warm body to attach to,” Sobol said.

What people do now will impact them later in life, so it is best to take necessary precautions to protect themselves and get tested regularly, according to Sobol. She also said communication is key.

It is important to talk to a potential sexual partner and ask the person if they’ve been tested, when they were tested and what the results were, Sobol said. Just looking at a person does not cut it because people with HIV “look just like you and me.”

“It’s here. It’s real, and it needs to be dealt with,” Sobol said.