Following infection with HIV, the median time it takes for symptoms of AIDS to appear is ten years. AIDS is fatal. HIV is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, needle-sharing, from an infected mother to an infant during pregnancy, delivery and through breast feeding, and occasionally through occupational exposure in the health care setting. The HIV epidemics continue to be unstable and unpredictable, both in Canada and globally. The virus itself changes quickly, mutating at an accelerated rate, creating new strains which offer challenges in detection, prevention and treatment.
New strains can also arrive in Canada through global travel and migration.
No cure or vaccine exists. The new treatments which are emerging are very costly and it is too soon to measure their full effect. More than 6 million have already died. 51,000 Canadians have been infected since the first case was recorded here in 1982. Of those infected, over 18,000 have developed AIDS, and 12,000 have died.