A virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency virus, causes AIDS.

University Degree Medicine and Dentistry

Introduction

The world is not always kind to the human body. An assortment of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites thrive in the environment. Many of these organisms are perfectly capable of not only surviving but also thriving inside our bodies – and potentially causing us great harm. These microorganisms are responsible for many human diseases.

Viruses lack cellular structure and consist of nucleic acid and protein; and spend most of their time within our body cells. This is the only place they can reproduce. ‘Viruses cannot reproduce without the aid of a living cell.’ They are extremely diverse in their ability to infect, persist and initiate disease in our bodies.

What does AIDS mean?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome:

Acquired means you can get infected with it.
Immune Deficiency means a weakness in the body’s system that fights diseases.
Syndrome means a group of health problems that make up a disease.

I have chosen HIV/ AIDS to research because it is so profoundly disturbing for many people, and also because it is a new disease that invariably kills - there is no vaccine and no cure. It could, and has been liken to Leprosy or the Black Death in the Dark Ages; plus also what is apparent form my research into this disease is that it works in mysterious ways, and so like those ancient diseases a terrible social stigma is attached to it.

Like so many people, I did not understand that being HIV – positive, or having HIV disease, is not the same as having AIDS.

You don’t actually ‘get’ AIDS. You might get infected with HIV, and later you might develop AIDS.

AIDS was first reported in the United States in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide epidemic.

Source:

‘ More than 790,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States since 1981, and as many as 900,000 Americans may be infected with HIV. The epidemic is growing most rapidly among minority populations and is leading killer of African – American males ages 25 to 44. According to the U.S Centres for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], AIDS affects nearly 7 times more African Americans and 3 times more Hispanics than whites.’

Ref:

See appendix 1. For a breakdown of global statistics.

There are two main variants, HIV –1 and HIV –2. HIV – 2 is endemic in West Africa and appears to be less pathogenic.

More than 80% of people infected with HIV live in developing countries and spread is 80% by the sexual route [70% vaginal; 10% anal]

Ref: Immunology.

HIV /AIDS has crept through Africa over the past two decades, spreading misery and threat of continent wide devastation. In South Africa, Botswana and at least four other African countries, more than one fifth of adults are already infected, and those numbers continue to rise.

‘Sub – Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of the pandemic; with over 28 million people living with HIV/ AIDS – estimated 70% of the worlds in total’

Ref: Tracking the global Epidemic.

In the UK we tend to consider HIV /AIDS to be a plight for the rest of the developing world. But in real terms the UK does have people and their families living with HIV /AIDS.

One of the first persons to die from AIDS in the UK was Terence Higgins; he was only 37 years old when he died [4th July 1982]. And subsequently a group of Terence’s friends set up The Terence Higgins Trust, to help prevent and inform and support people with HIV/ AIDS.

See appendix 2. The Terence Higgins Trust – History.

It is estimated that there are 50,000 people living with HIV in the UK, the highest number ever; estimated to rise 25% in 2002.
12,544 people were reported as having died with AIDS in the UK.

Ref:

But the UK is not alone in Europe in this epidemic; one of the fastest growing HIV/ AIDS epidemics is found in Eastern Europe.

‘HIV incidence is rising faster in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia than anywhere else in the ...