Education Seminars
Educational seminars are provided by Debra Lyn McCarthy in DUI classes every seven weeks, and in the Outpatient groups every 3 months. McCarthy also is available for additional seminars to the community and can be contacted through Healthy Perspectives at (707) 631-7111.

Getting Tested
Testing is performed the first Friday of every month between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.
It is provied on a drop-in basis at 1286 Callen Street, Vacaville, CA, 95688.
The test is a simple swab test and is completely confidential.

How Do HIV and AIDS Differ?
HIV is an acronym that stands for "Human Imune Virus". When you test positive for the antibodies, you have HIV. It takes anywhere from two weeks to six months to test positive from the time that you were possibly exposed via unprotected sex or sharing needles for any reason. HIV is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Defficiency Syndrome (AIDS).You are diagnosed with AIDS when your CD4 cells (also called T cells) are below 200. Normal CD4 cell level can be anywhere from 1000 - 2000.

What the Acronyms stand for:
The following explanation of the acronyms HIV and AIDS is from www.aids.org:
HIV
H:   Human: because this virus can only infect human beings.

I:   Immuno-deficiency: because the effect of the virus is to create a deficiency, a failure to work properly, within the body's immune system.

V:   Virus: because this organism is a virus, which means one of its characteristics is that it is incapable of reproducing by itself. It reproduces by taking over the machinery of the human cell.

AIDS
A:   Acquired: because it's a condition one must acquire or get infected with; not something transmitted through the genes.

I:   Immune: because it affects the body's immune system, the part of the body which usually works to fight off germs such as bacteria and viruses.

D:   Deficiency: because it makes the immune system deficient (makes it not work properly).

S:   Syndrome: because someone with AIDS may experience a wide range of different diseases and opportunistic infections.

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CD4 Cells
CD4 Cells (also known as T-Cells) help your body prevent infection. HIV attacks CD4 cells so that they can't prevent infection. At first, the body can make more CD4 cells but eventually the body can't keep up and the number of working CD4 cells decreases. This weakens the immune system and leaves the body at risk for different types of infections.

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About Treatments
Medical advancement is being made all the time. Project Inform is a wonderful resource for treatment information.

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