AIDS and HIV by Joe Weller
Human immunodeficiency virus is one of the world's most prominent diseases. It is a condition which attacks the immune system, making way for other opportunistic diseases, often life-threatening, to attack the body. It was recognised as a disease on December 1st 1981and, as of January 2006, HIV/AIDS has killed more than 25 million people. This means that it is one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a collection of diseases and infections. Due to its nature of being almost random set of opportunistic
T is very difficult to find a cure for as many strains have developed.
It is now generally accepted that HIV is a descendant of a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus because certain strains of SIVs bear a very close resemblance to HIV-1 and HIV-2, the two types of HIV. In February 1999 a group of researchers from the University of Alabama announced that they had found a type of SIVcpz that was almost identical to HIV-1. The researchers (led by Paul Sharp of Nottingham University and Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama) made the discovery during the course of a 10-year long study into the origins of the virus. They claimed that this sample proved that chimpanzees were the source of HIV-1, and that the virus had at some point crossed species from chimps to humans.
Their final findings were published two years later in Nature magazine. In this article, they concluded that wild chimps had been infected simultaneously with two different simian immunodeficiency viruses which had "viral sex" to form a third virus that could be passed on to other chimps and, more significantly, was capable of infecting humans and causing AIDS.
From its origins in sub-Saharan Africa HIV is now a pandemic, with an estimated 38.6 million people now living with the disease worldwide. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization ...
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Their final findings were published two years later in Nature magazine. In this article, they concluded that wild chimps had been infected simultaneously with two different simian immunodeficiency viruses which had "viral sex" to form a third virus that could be passed on to other chimps and, more significantly, was capable of infecting humans and causing AIDS.
From its origins in sub-Saharan Africa HIV is now a pandemic, with an estimated 38.6 million people now living with the disease worldwide. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1st 1981. In 2005 alone, AIDS claimed an estimated 2.4-3.3 million lives, of which more than 570,000 were children. A third of these deaths are occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. HIV/AIDS stigma is more severe than that associated with other life-threatening conditions and extends beyond the disease itself to providers and even volunteers involved with the care of people living with HIV.
HIV can be passed on by a number of ways such as through blood, vaginal fluids, semen and breast milk. This is why the disease spreads so quickly in LEDCs, because awareness of the disease is not as high and people in these countries often cannot afford to take all the necessary precautions in sex such as condoms.
HIV is a disease that is prominent in almost every country in the world, in every class, race and age group. In 2005, it was estimated that there were 2.3 million people under 15 living with HIV. This means that every body is at risk without practicing safe sex. Safe sex means using a condom during sexual intercourse. Using a condom is not absolutely safe as condoms can break, but condoms can be effective if they are used correctly.
The reason that AIDS is so catastrophic is that it's not a disease that goes after a particular part of your body, a particular organ, like diabetes affects the pancreas or renal failure goes after the kidneys. Instead, it goes after the whole means by which your body fights off just about everything -- your immune system. HIV attacks the immune system such that it can't fight off infections or cancers. This means that illnesses that would normally gain barely a toehold before being fought off can now run absolutely rampant once the immune system has been damaged badly enough. Once this happens -- once the HIV has damaged the immune system this badly -- all sorts of cancers and infections start popping up. This stage of the illness is what's called AIDS.
HIV attacks 3 main cells within the immune system:
* B cells - B cells are used to fight viruses -- they send out antibodies that bind to the "socket" of the viruses, the injection port they'd normally use to poke a hole in a cell once they've attached themselves to it.
* Cytotoxic T Cells - Cytotoxic T cells are used to fight infected cells and bacteria -- they can recognize infected cells or bacteria and punch holes in them to kill them. They do this to bacteria, and to cells of an infected person that have been compromised. They can also recognize and kill off other problem cells, such as cancer cells.
* Helper T cells - Helper T cells are sort of the "brains" of the operation. They can recognize when a foreign invader, bacteria or virus, has entered the body, and they send out chemical signals to send the B cells and cytotoxic T cells into action.
HIV goes after these helper T cells. By doing that, they prevent any of the other cells in the immune system from operating -- with no helper T cells to direct the actions of the B cells and cytotoxic T cells; no reaction against a foreign invader can be mounted. The immune system is crippled.
The UK suffers from a relatively small HIV epidemic in comparison with some parts of the world, with an estimated 63,500 adults - 0.2% of the population - currently living with HIV.1 The impact of HIV has nonetheless been substantial amongst certain groups, in particular the gay community and, more recently, amongst people who have migrated to the UK from African countries.
London is the epicenter of the epidemic, accounting for almost half of all HIV diagnoses in the UK. However, increasing numbers of diagnoses in England are being reported in areas outside the capital, including many places that were not previously associated with HIV. In Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, HIV is less prevalent than in England, but in each of these countries, and in fact worldwide, it is a rising problem.
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Websites used: wikipedia, avert.org, cdc.gov.uk
