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Human Immunodeficiency Virus And Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

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Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

In 1981, the first cases in the United States of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) developed in Los Angeles and New York (Fraser, Burd, Liebson, Lipschik, & Peterson, 2008). The illness presented itself among several homosexual males who developed rare opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma (Sharp & Hahn, 2011). At the time, medical professionals deemed the infections to be “gay-related infectious diseases” (Pence, 2008). However, three months after this diagnosis, medical professionals revealed the presence of the same infection among newborns whose mothers used intravenous drugs (Pence, 2008). In 1984, scientist …show more content…

Pathophysiology The Human Immunodeficiency Virus has two types, (type 1 and type 2), followed by nine different subtypes based on the simian location from which each strand originated (Sharp & Hahn, 2008). According to Sharp and Hahn (2008), Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 is the most common cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome worldwide and originates from the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus found in sub-Saharan African chimpanzees and gorillas. Specifically, group M represents the most common strand of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (Sharp & Hahn 2008). The original contraction of SIV-1 in humans followed the consumption of bush meat collected from hunting HIV infected chimpanzees and gorillas (Sharp & Hahn, 2008). Once in the human body, the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus became the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Sharp & Hahn, 2008). Although originally acquired through the consumption of infected simian blood, the most predominant contracting factor in today’s society is through unprotected sexual intercourse, whether oral, anal, or vaginal, and the exchange of infected blood (Fraser et al., 2008). The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus originally encoded in ribonucleic acid or RNA (Fraser et al., 2008). HIV virions travel through the blood stream and other bodily fluids in order to infect

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