The year of 1959 saw the first case of the sexually transmitted immune eating disease HIV .Human Immunodeficncy Virus or HIV was tested positive in a man from Congo. HIV is the attack by a disease of the body’s immune system essentially decaying it over time. With the simple symptoms of the common influenza HIV is a silent killer with more than 70 million infections globally and more than 35 million deaths (World Health Organisation, 2015). HIV can be transmitted in many different ways, as well as having multiple symptoms and signs. There is no current cure for HIV or AIDS but there are multiple biological options being made available. HIV destroys the immune system atrociously, allowing for the body to become weak and contract other diseases, most commonly AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) HIV and AIDS is one of the world’s mortiferous disease and has a world of biological beauty and intelligence behind it.
TRANSMISSION
HIV infects approximately 39 million people, majority of which life in low socioeconomic countries or third world countries such as Africa and India. HIV is transmitted 3 main ways: Sexually, through blood and rarely through pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. When engaging in sexual activity, semen and vaginal fluids can spread the infection if unprotected intercourse is performed. Sharing of needles, blood transfusion and work place accidents can also spread the HIV and infiltrate the blood system. Less commonly the mother of a child will infect
According to Bell (2011), the infection of the HIV virus mainly spreads through a sexual contact or blood to blood contact with an infected person. HIV spreads mainly through sexual intercourse-whether heterosexual or homosexual- where one of the partners is infected, transfusion of blood which is infected by the HIV virus, through the blood and blood products. The sharing of infected syringes or sharp needles can lead to HIV transmission. HIV is passed on by an infected mother towards her unborn child through the placenta. HIV does not spread through biting of mosquitoes, casual embracing, holding or touching an infected person, shaking hands with an infected person, coughing, sharing of public toilets or sharing meals or eating from the same plates. HIV cannot be transmitted through sharing clothes or attending similar schools or even working together.
We have been aware of HIV and AIDS since the 1970s (Miller, 2012), and though there have been treatments and reduction in the number of people infected, the disease remains. The disease results in death usually following opportunistic infections as a result of AIDS destruction of the immune system, but thanks to modern medicine “many people
AIDS or acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a disease where a person regardless of race or gender can get infected and have no chance of survival. AIDS started in the 1980’s to move from human to human. In a event were sex kills this is the one. In 1995, AIDS was the leading cause of death for adults 25 to 44 years old. But in recent years treatments help the survival and prolonged life of many with AIDS yet the disease still resides within them and they are dangerous to the well being of
In the 1980s, a mysterious disease began to take the lives of Americans. With the cause unknown, a fear grew among Americans. An unusually high rate of people was becoming sick with strange and rare diseases. When experimental treatments failed to work, people died. This mysterious disease is what we now know as HIV–Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the past thirty-five years, the HIV has taken many turns in history. Although we do not hear about HIV and AIDS now, it is still a prevalent issue in the United States and in the world.
The most common vector for the virus to enter the body is through sexual transmission, either by anal, oral, or vaginal sex. The highest risk activity is anal sex, as the mucous membrane inflammation facilitates HIV transmission (McCutchan, 2013). However, other modes such as sharing needles when injecting drugs, tiny cuts or sores on a person’s vagina, mouth, or penis, or simply the birth of a child by an infected mother, can all spread the disease to other
In the 21st century, everyone has heard of the frightening HIV and AIDS virus. The disease we first discovered in 1983 in Arica, when it killed millions of people, especially poor people and travelers. In the developing countries, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are considered a death sentence, the world over, it is a frightening virus that has killed many people.
HIV is a sexually transmitted disease that attacks the body’s immune system by diminishing CD4 cells that help prevent and fight illnesses. HIV is a virus, more specifically a retrovirus that transcribes its RNA into the host cell’s DNA, and is spread by a transfer in bodily fluids namely drug injection and condomless sex. As the disease progresses into acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the virus continues eliminating CD4 cells until the immune system becomes virtually ineffective [5]. Scientists first identified HIV in 1985 in response to the AIDS crisis plaguing the United States [6]. With no cure yet available, those affected with HIV must rely on antiretroviral drug therapy to decrease their chances of developing AIDS [7].
“AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is the most deadly and, apparently, the most recent of all sexually transmitted diseases. As mentioned earlier, it is caused by HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus.” (Little 75) It infects the DNA sequence, and makes white blood cells useless. “There are two serious diseases most often seen in AIDS patients; Kaposi’s Saicoma, and pneumonia.”(Taylor 15)
HIV is most commonly spread through having unprotected sex with someone who has HIV. Sharing needles or syringes with someone who has HIV when injecting heroin is also a way to spread HIV. HIV can be transmitted through certain bodily fluids like: blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, and vaginal and rectal fluids.
Statistics show that people carry HIV/AIDS from particular types of activities. Commonly, the only way to transmit HIV is through sexual contact. The risks for this involves having anal or vaginal sex with an infected person without using protection to prevent the disease. Other methods, such as using needles or syringes that have been used, has also known to prepare to inject the person. The virus can be well known to transmit with body fluids including blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, as well as breast milk. Speaking of breast milk, when HIV is transmitted into a mother while experiencing childbirth or through breastfeeding, it is known as perinatal HIV. This type of virus is prevented by using antiretrovirals after giving birth. The body fluids make it way by entering the mucous membrane tissue that is found in inside of the mouth, rectum, and genitals. “HIV is most commonly transmitted through homosexual men in the United States and Canada.” (Encyclopedia Britannica) Most people who are either lesbian of gay in all parts of the world are infected with the virus but do not know about
Few phenomena have changed the face of sexuality as dramatically as the appearance nearly 30 years ago of the microscopic virus known as HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV s the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS (CDC, 2013). AIDS is a medical condition that is named because HIV is acquired and subsequently affects the body’s immune system to the point where it often becomes deficient in combating disease causing organisms, resulting a group of symptoms that collectively indicate or characterize a disease or syndrome. The World Health Organization states that HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than
People can contract HIV through several sources. First, people who need blood transfusions can become infected. For example, “… in some cases, the virus may be transmitted through blood transfusions.” (NHP CC DC) Second, people who share infected needles can become infected. For example, “… HIV can be transmitted through needles syringes contaminated with infected blood.” (NHP CC DC) Third, another way people can become
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that cause initial HIV infection and, as the virus proliferates in the body, AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). HIV affects the immune system by exploiting, and, eventually, destroying a specific kind of immune cells. That allows for the gradual deterioration of a person’s immune system, which ultimately causes death from minor opportunistic infections, which are normally perfectly curable and generally do not cause major consequences for health. HIV has a limited range of transmission ways. It is only transmitted through the direct contact of body fluids, which include blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk [1]. This means that most of the modes of transmission include activities that are moralized by society, such as intravenous drug use and sexual contact [1]. However, it can also be transmitted through “innocent pathways”, such as during breastfeeding (mother to child) and blood transfusion. HIV is a very young, still poorly understood virus. It was first clinically observed in the summer of 1981 in San Francisco, where it was spotted as a type of sarcoma, mostly spotted in the gay population. In the beginning of the global epidemic, there was a huge misunderstanding of the disease [2]. Back then, a general sentiment about HIV was that of a “rather devastating outbreak” [2] , associated with homosexuality and drug use (to the point
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:
HIV is a virus that is spread almost all over the world. Although in some places health care isn’t as developed and therefore it spreads more in those regions. Sub-Saharan Africa holds more than 70%, 25 million, of all HIV positive people in the world. Second highest is Eastern Europe together with Central Asia with 1.3 million. It is spread over most of the world, including Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America, North Africa and the Middle East and Western and Central Europe (“The Regional Picture”).