Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ( Aids )

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was first recognized as a new disease in 1981 when increasing numbers of young homosexual men succumbed to unusual opportunistic infections and rare

HIV is communicable disease that is caused by virus. This particular virus attacks the immune system which means people who suffer from HIV find it more difficult to fight of infection than the average person who does not suffer from HIV. This disease can be transmitted by direct contact, generally it is transferred by sexual contact between partners in fact 95% of those who suffer from HIV are contracted it this way. It can also be contracted by using dirty needles or any other contaminated tool. It can also be contracted by sharing sexual toys. HIV is commonly found in a person’s bodily fluids this means it is spread through, Sperm, vaginal and even anal fluids, breast milk and blood are also common.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is related to HIV, but they are not one in the same. A person has AIDS only in the final stages of HIV, after the immune system becomes unable to defend itself against foreign bacteria, other viruses, and fungi, and allows for the development of certain cancers. The world first became aware of AIDS in the early 1980s. Growing numbers of gay men in New York and California were developing rare types of pneumonia and cancer, and a wasting disease was spreading in Uganda. Doctors reported AIDS symptoms under different names, including “gay-related immune deficiency” and “slim,” but by 1985, they reported them all over the world.

HIV is a virus that can lead to AIDS. Patients infected with HIV often shows no symptoms until the disease has progressed to AIDS. HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids, but cannot be transmitted through casual contact. Most commonly, HIV is transmitted through sexual contact. It may be transmitted through blood-to-blood contact, such as needle sharing or accidental needle sticks in a healthcare setting. It may also be transmitted during pregnancy or birth from mother to child. It cannot be transmitted through casual contact such as hugging, playing sports or touching something that was touched by someone infected (CDC, n.d).

Before beginning to analyze the accuracy of the portrayal of the AIDS epidemic throughout Angels in America, the virus must first be looked at in its actual historical context. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is a collection of symptoms and complications due to a deficient immune system that is the result of HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The AIDS epidemic made its presence in the United States known on June 5, 1981 when five men were diagnosed with a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia, amongst other infections. The previously healthy, gay men were on the decline due to a compromised immune system. These cases were

In 1920, HIV originated in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo when it crossed species from chimpanzees to humans. Up until the 1980s, researchers did not know how many people were infected with this disease. HIV was completely unknown and the transmission was not connected with the noticeable signs or symptoms. Also, HIV may have already spread to five continents of the world: North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. In this period, between 100,000 and 300,000 people could have already been infected. In June 1982, a of cases among gay men in Southern California suggested that the cause of the Human immune deficiency or HIV was sexually transmitted. This disease was initially called gay-related immune deficiency or “GRID”.

The disease AIDS is an acronym for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The first known case of the AIDS virus was found in 1970’s. The AIDS disease was made aware in hospitals among male patients who had same-sex relationships. The two main areas of this disease at that time was in New York and Los Angeles. “In 1982 the AIDS disease was enhancing Kaposi 's sarcoma and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia” (Scavnicky, 2011). In order for a person to be diagnosed with AIDS is due to having the HIV virus. The first HIV virus was detected around 1950. It was considered to have originated from monkey’s or chimps. It later had been spread to humans. The AIDS name had surfaced after the latter stages of HIV have

Researchers believe that this syndrome originally originated from chimpanzees as HIV and later turned to AIDS somewhere along western Africa. Humans contracted the syndrome when they hunted these animals and ate them. AIDS was first recognized in gay men from both New York and California around the 1980s. Researchers and doctors labeled this sickness going around as “gay-immune related deficiency” but by 1985 they labeled the sickness as AIDS and realized it was being found amongst both sexes and worldwide. By 1986, a successful treatment to control HIV was found. It was a failed cancer drug called AZT and was later used for AIDS as well. Doctors were giving AZT as well as a combination of other drugs to help control the disease, but it only helped those who had money and access to the treatment. Within later years, the treatment and control for both HIV and AIDS have widened but they now focus more on giving access to all victims of this sickness.

The definition of AIDS is a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body’s cellular immunity, greatly lowered the resistance for things like infections and other bacteria’s and malignancy. The disease first started in the continent of Africa, which was apart of the chimpanzee version of a virus much like immunodeficiency virus. Which was known as simian human’s virus, this disease mutated and then manifested into the HIV virus once human beings began to hunt chimps. The disease Aids can be spread through the blood stream in a person, through cuts and things like that. Also it can be spread through unprotected sex and through the transactions of bodily fluids between different people. Once AIDS first was sited in

This marked the first official reporting of what came to be known as the AIDS epidemic. On the following day, June 6th, 1981, the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times reported on the MMWR. The San Francisco Chronicle covered the story, and within days doctors from all across the US flooded CDC with reports of similar cases. In addition, CDC also received reports of a rare and weirdly aggressive cancer called Kaposi’s Sarcoma, in a group of gay men in New York and California. On June 8th, CDC developed a Task Force on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (KSOI) to identify risk factors and establish a case definition for national surveillance. On July 3rd, there were about 41 cases of Kaposi’s Sarcoma allegedly affecting gay men in New York and California, by the end of the year there was a total of 270 reported cases of severe immune deficiency in gay men, and about 121 of those men died.

The history of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in the United States starts in 1981, the year it became recognized by country as an official new strange disease. By 1982 it was recognized as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It started in San Francisco, with five young homosexual men, they were presented with Pneumonia (PCP). As the year went on there were more reports of homosexual men presenting PCP and some of them were diagnosed with PCP and Kaposi´s Sarcoma (KS). Others reports from drug injection users follow the same syndromes. All of these individuals shared a profound immunodeficiency, the hallmark of which was a depletion of CD4-positive, or T-helper, lymphocytes (Osmond, 2003). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

HIV, or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus which damages and kills cells of the immune system. It attacks the T-cells, key cells of the immune system, and uses them to make copies of itself. After being infected with the virus it progressively interferes and eventually destroys the immune system's ability to fight the anti-genes. HIV may develop into the syndrome AIDS, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV is an STD - a sexually transmitted disease - and therefore most commonly it is spread through sexual contact, and the virus mainly enters the body through the penis, mouth, lining of the vagina or vulva during sexual activity. HIV can also be spread through sharing syringes or needles with someone who is infected with the

In 1982 CDC described Aids as “A disease at least moderately predictive of a defect in cell mediated immunity, occurring in a person with no known case for diminished resistance to that disease” (History of HIV and Aids.) Aids is a serious infection that occurs when someone has HIV. If a person has been tested positive for HIV is not likely to have Aids. Aids occur when the body becomes so weak it cannot defend itself against infections. “An HIV-positive person is diagnosed with AIDS if his or her immune system weakens, as indicated by the number of CD4 cells in his or her blood. A CD4 cell count less than 200 in an HIV-infected person gives someone a diagnosis of AIDS” (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.) “HIV is very good at cloaking it’s self in the body. This way the virus can move through the body almost undetected killing cells along the way. It also makes its way to the neuroglial cells in the brain and spine. This is the main problem defending against HIV, it’s is

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) have always plagued the globe. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Health Observatory (GHO), there are 36.9 million cases of HIV infections throughout the globe by the end of the year 2014 and 0.08% of adults with ages 15-49 years old are infected with HIV (World Health Organization, 2016). Also, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), there was an average of 30,000 (23,000- 58,000) cases of HIV in the year 2013 in the Philippines; 37,000 (27,000- 83,000) in the year 2014; and 42,000 (30,000- 120,000) in the year 2015 (UNAIDS, 2016). According to the Philippine Canadian Inquirer, the

HIV can develop when a non-infected person exposed by an infected person with HIV through bodily fluids. HIV in an infected person can annihilate the cells; the immune system weakens and becomes a target for other infectious illnesses. When the immune system can no longer defend itself, the infection has progressed to AIDS. People can contract HIV in many ways. HIV can spread by coming in contact with body fluids such as semen, saliva, blood, rectal and vaginal fluids, and breast milk from women who are nursing their babies. Promoting and educating preventative measures are an effort in controlling HIV.