AIDS/HIVAcquired the immunesystem. There are two groups

AIDS/HIVAcquired the immunesystem. There are two groups

AIDS/HIVAcquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, better known as AIDS, is caused bythe incurable HIV virus. AIDS is a deadly disease that deteriorates the immunesystem. There are two groups of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), HIV-1 thatoccurs throughout the world and HIV-2 that mainly occurs in Africa. The HIVvirus enters the white blood cells and takes over the reproductive system ofthat cell and uses the system to reproduce itself.

The white blood cell diesand the new HIV cells infect other white blood cells and repeat the process.The Person with the disease will eventually die because the white blood celldies off tottally.If you have become infected with the AIDS disease you may not have anysymptoms of the disease for the next ten years. People with the HIV virususually look and feel healthy and may not even know that they are infected.

Even though they don’t look or feel sick, they can still infect others.When the symptoms do start to happen they can be like the ones of manycommon sicknesses such as swollen glands, coughing, fever, and diarrhea. It isusually characterized by severe weight loss and fatigue.The AIDS diseasemakes the less serious conditions harder for your body to control or get rid ofbecause of the loss of many of the white blood cells in your body. The mostcommon causes of death for the people with AIDS are pneumonia and Kaposi’ssarcoma. Kaposi’s sarcoma which shows up as purple lesions on the skin andtumors known as B-cell lymphomas have affected 70% of the infected people.

AIDS is transmitted in three main ways. Intimate sexual contact such ashaving vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who is infected with HIV is themost common. While direct contact with infected blood, like sharing needles forinjecting drugs, HIV also can be passed from an infected mother to her babyduring pregancy or childbirth. Although some people speculate, you cannotreceive the disease from kissing on the cheek and it is very unlikely that youcould get HIV even from open mouth kissing, you also cannot get thedisease/virus from close hugging, touching, cuddling, and massages as long asthere isn’t any open cuts or abrassions. HIV also cannot be contracted fromusing toilet seats,telephones, drinking fountains, straws, spoons, or cups ormosquitoes, air, food, water, coughs/sneezes, sweat or tears.AIDS is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is a sentenceof slow but defininate death.

There currently is no cure or vaccine for thisdisease but there are drugs that have been proven effective in slowing thespread of this deadly disease like AZT the first chemical shown to be partiallyeffective in reducing clinical symptoms and controlling viral replication wasdeveloped in 1986-87. Scientists say that a safe, effective vaccine against HIVmay be at least a decade or more away, mainly because HIV changes structurequickly, producing different types. A lot of types of the AIDS virus have beenisolated, and it looks like the disease is contunually changing in its geneticlooks and so, its closes up against what a person’s immune system can makeantibodies.We know enough about how the infection is transmitted to protectourselves from it. But too few people are hearing the AIDS message.

Maybe manyjust don’t like or want to believe what they hear, preferring to think that AIDS”can’t happen to them.” Like other communicable diseases, AIDS can strikeanyone. AIDS doesn’t just occur in certain social groups of people. We allhave to protect ourselves from this infection and learn about it in time to takegood enough precautions. Taking the right actions, no one needs to get AIDS.Now is the time to take charge against the AIDS disease by using goodprecautions such as using condoms made of latex rubber.

People have to remember,that the most reliable person in charge of preventing you from getting AIDS, isyourself!In 1990, the World Health Organization brought to attention that 203,599cases of AIDS were reported worldwide by the end of 1989, and estimated theactual number of cases to have been 600,000.