Benoite is a victim of HIV/AIDS disease who experienced first hand, with her partner, the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. She grew deathly sick, worrying about her own health and the health of her babies that she might have infected. Benoite realized that by her impulsive actions, she put the lives of her children and husband in danger, because she didn’t know just how common HIV was. Most people are aware of the disease known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, also known as HIV and AIDS. It is caused by a very deadly parasite that can destroy someone’s life and the lives of their families, so everyone needs to be cautious and be aware of the causes in order to protect themselves. HIV/ AIDS is a very …show more content…
If an infected person uses a needle to take drugs and that same needle gets used by another person, that person becomes at risk of catching HIV too. On average, one in ten new HIV infections is caused by the sharing of needles. It is estimated that there are 12 million people who inject drugs worldwide, and around 1.6 million (one in seven) are thought to be living with HIV (‘People Who Inject Drugs, HIV and AIDS’ on December 16, 2016). The last possible cause of HIV/AIDS is during pregnancy or delivery or through breast-feeding. If the mother has HIV or AIDS and is pregnant, it puts the baby at risk of catching the disease too. There is a 15-45% chance of passing HIV to their baby if the mother doesn’t take HIV treatment. So if one is a parent, it is very important to check their health for their own safety and their children 's too.
There are some signs that can indicate that the HIV virus is developing in the body, (according to www.aids.gov on 12/31/2015). The early symptoms of HIV could be fever, muscle aches, sore throat, fatigue, swollen mouth sores and inconsistent variation of temperatures like chills or night sweats. However as HIV progresses into AIDS the symptoms could get worse such as rapid weight loss, recurring fever, extreme tiredness and swelling, diarrhea that lasts for more than a week, pneumonia (lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection), loss of memory, depression, or other neurologic disorders. Many people
HIV has affected people all across the world. HIV comes with physical and mental symptoms. The body symptoms include skin flaking off, being dry, skin peeling off (Saliba 23) , fingernails falling off (32), and weight loss (14). Mentally it is hard to sleep, people become weak, and are tired all the time (23). People all across the world are infected with this disease, and the problem with this is the fact that most do not even know they have it. The most people who are infected each year are African Americans, gays, or bisexuals. 10,315 African Americans were infected in 2015. The U.S.A. has estimated about 1.1 million are infected with the disease. Equally to about 12,333 deaths happened in 2014 from AIDS related diseases, and 6,721 deaths from AIDS directly. Although there are a large amount of people getting infected, on the other hand eighteen percent of the population with HIV is declining since 2008-2014 (“U.S. Statistics”). In the world about 33.2 million people worldwide have HIV, with 22.5 million people in sub Saharan Africa are living with this condition, one out of nine people who live in South America have HIV or AIDS (Saliba 8).
HIV has flu-like symptoms. The symptoms include fever, chills, rash, night sweats, sore throat, etc. If a person doesn’t take a medicine called ART (antiretroviral treatment) their immune system will weaken and then they will develop AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). The symptoms of AIDS are rapid weight loss, extreme and unexplained tiredness, pneumonia, memory loss, depression, etc. Symptoms of HIV can start between a few months and more than ten years. HIV can only be spread through certain bodily fluids. Most of the time it is spread sexually. It can spread by blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. In the United States HIV is usually spread through anal or vaginal sex without taking medicine to prevent HIV or using a condom. HIV is also spread by sharing needles or syringes. HIV can live in a used needle for up to forty-two days. HIV does not survive long outside the body. It also cannot reproduce once it is outside its host. HIV also cannot be spread by tears, sweat, or saliva as long as it is not mixed with blood. HIV is a biosafety level three agent which meant it
When infected by HIV in the early stages the immune system tries fight against the virus which is the cause of the symptoms sufferers start to experience. Once these symptoms begin to leave your body generally suffers do not experience any other symptoms afterwards. However due to the damage done to the immune system after years of suffering from the disease it is likely to experience weight loss, hot sweats, skin issues and serious illnesses. It is vital that when testing for HIV the 5 C’s are followed which have been placed by the world health organisation which are as
According to the CDC, about 18 % of those infected with HIV in the United States are unaware of their infection. An estimate of 1,000 young people ages 13 to 24 are newly infected with HIV each month. HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids such as semen, blood, breast milk, and vaginal fluids. These fluids can come in contact between people in a variety of ways, including having unprotected sex (oral, vaginal, or anal); HIV can also be passed from mother to child during childbirth. Mother to child transmission is now rare in the US and other developed countries because pregnant women who are HIV-positive are normally given medications to prevent the fetus from getting infected. However, it is possible for an HIV-infected mother to
In 2015, specifically in LA downtown, I met Sara who is an African American girl who was suffering from HIV virus. She told me her sadly story when she was having sexual things with random people just because of having money. She didn’t have any knowledge about this virus. So, because of that, she got the HIV virus, and she thanked god that she treated so long to be clean. So, some people in this world don’t know what the AIDS means. So, the AIDS is a dangerous virus that attack cells human’s immune system, and if the people who didn’t treat themselves in the hospital, they probably are going to die. It is dangerous because this virus happens when the human’s immune system badly damaged and it becomes impressible to opportunistic infections. When the number of the human CD4 cells decrease below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood, it is considered to have progressed to AIDS. People who have the AIDS virus need medical treatment to prevent death. Overall, it takes time to treat around one year, and without treatment it is typically survive about three years (AIDS.gov). According to Tony L. Whitehead that between June 1981 and October 1995 in United states that U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got report of 501, 310 cases of AIDS. In addition, there were sixty-two percent of groups who have died, and although African American was represent only 12 percent of the United States, African American was represent 34 percent among them. In only five years, the
Some people live with it for years before being diagnosed and some experience symptoms within a few weeks. Symptoms are different for everyone but can include the usual flu-like symptoms which are “fever, headaches, tiredness, and enlarged lymph glands,” (HIV Facts, n.d.). These are some of the symptoms I had.
Primary HIV infection is the first stage and only lasts for a few weeks. Flu-like illnesses may be present during this stage. The second stage is known as clinically asymptomatic stage and typically lasts for an average of ten years. Although major symptoms might not exist during this stage, the HIV-positive person may experience swollen glands. Symptomatic HIV infection is the third stage. As the immune system continues to fail, symptoms surface and become miniscule at first then later leading to more prevalent symptoms. This third stage is generally caused by illnesses, involving cancers and infections, which the immune system would normally fight off but is not able to because the immune system is too weak. Finally, AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, develops and is the final stage of HIV. A person is diagnosed with AIDS when they show the symptom called an opportunistic infection. This is when infections take advantage of the weakened immune system. HIV leads into life threatening AIDS and causes the infected individual to feel escalating amounts of pain such as neurotic pain, tremendous headaches, gastrointestinal pain, chest pain, and even emotional pain such as depression. This pain can be intense enough to cease the individual from living a productively normal life. HIV and AIDS can strike anyone at any point in their life and should be taken seriously.
The term that was the most difficult to change is " I am an AIDS victim. This term is the most shocking to me because this syndrome is a chronic potentially life threatening; I might feel week, and close to death. Other terms that are very rude and disrespectful to me are: " I am retarded, I am dummy, I am imbecile." These phrases spread hurt, are offensive and derogatory. I do believe that all people have the right and deserve to be treated respectfully.
It is an infectious illness of the liver and is caused by the hepatitis B virus that affects apes, including humans. (“Hepatitis B” 1) It might possibly be the most serious of all the different types of hepatitis.
People believe that the only way to get AIDS or HIV, it is only an issue for people who are promiscuous, the poor, minorities and gay people. Continually to make common mistakes that have the potential to lead them to a rude awakening about who can get the diseases. Most common way people could get it is by having anal or vaginal sex, or doing injection drugs with someone who is infected and sharing equipment I high risk. Pregnancy is
Just as clearly, experience shows that the right approaches, applied quickly enough with courage and resolve, can and do result in lower HIV infection rates and less suffering for those affected by the epidemic. An ever-growing AIDS epidemic is not inevitable; yet, unless action against the epidemic is scaled up drastically, the damage already done will seem minor compared with what lies ahead. This may sound dramatic, but it is hard to play down the effects of a disease that stands to kill more than half of the young adults in the countries where it has its firmest hold—most of them before they finish the work of caring for their children or providing for their elderly parents. Already, 18.8 million people around the world have died of AIDS, 3.8 million of them children. Nearly twice that many—34.3 million—are now living with HIV, the virus [9].
HIV goes through several different movements before it leads to AIDs. The first step is the serioconversion illness. This symptoms of this illness is very similar to the flu and an affected individual will
In general, symptoms of HIV are usually not present when a person becomes initially infected. “One or to two months after infection, a person may have enlarged lymph nodes (in the neck and groin), fever, headache, and feel tired.” Because these symptoms are basically the flu and pass after a week or month, these symptoms alone are often mistaken for other illness. The HIV virus can be transmitted to other people during this time. When symptoms do become more severe, they may include the following
Since the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS has killed more than 30 million people worldwide, including more than 500,000 Americans. AIDS has replaced malaria and tuberculosis as the world's deadliest infectious disease among adults and is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Over 13 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic. A person who is HIV-infected carries the virus in certain body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. The virus can be transmitted only if such HIV-infected fluids enter the bloodstream of another person. This kind of direct entry can occur (1) through the linings of the vagina, rectum, mouth, and the opening at the tip of the penis; (2) through intravenous injection with a syringe; or (3) through a break in the skin, such as a cut or sore. Usually, HIV is transmitted through:
What is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)? AIDS is the disease that an individual with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) has a chance of getting when their immune system becomes so damaged, opening up the body to many different illnesses. According to medical research not everyone who has HIV will in fact be advance to the final stage of the disease, especially when caught and treated early on. For someone to be diagnosed with AIDS typically they would have contracted an infection or cancer from their immune system being too weak to fight the infection away, and in most cases their CD4 cells (T-cells) count would be under 200, the normal amount being between 500 and 1,600. A lot of people may wonder where did the HIV disease initially come from, and how did it spread? The answer is simply from chimpanzees in Central Africa, their version being called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). When humans needed to hunt these animals for food as far back as the 1800’s, it is believed that is when they contracted the virus and it transformed into the human version known as HIV, slowly working its way from Africa to the United States in the 1970’s (AIDS.gov, 2015). Once a person contracts HIV it starts to attack the CD4 positive lymphocytes which are part of our immune system that helps to fight off infection. The virus being so strong it has the power to turn healthy cells into unhealthy ones, eventually taking over the body’s defense against illnesses.