Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv )

According to estimates and numbers provided by the CDC, about one and a half million people 13 years of age and younger is HIV positive. Demographics also show that almost 20% of people who are infected do not know they have the virus. The CDC estimates that now every year, there are about 50,000 new cases diagnosed (2013). At risk groups include gay men, bisexual people, and African Americans (CDC, 2013). Young African American males are at greatest risk for contracting HIV among various ethnicities and races (CDC, 2013).

“At the end of 2013, an estimated 1.2 million persons aged 13 and older were living with HIV infection in the United States, including an estimated 161,200 (13%) persons whose infections had not been diagnosed (cdc.gov).” Many people report never experiencing any symptoms and don’t even know

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

As the disease becomes more severe and the virus persistently destroys the immune system, this is known as early HIV infection. With the virus becoming more intense symptoms may vary from fatigue, once again swollen lymph nodes, diarrhea, weight loss, fever, oral yeast infection, and even shingles. With no treatment of the HIV infection, this virus will become AIDS within ten years. With AIDS present the immune system has been extremely damaged and weakened, like those common illnesses such as the flu would be extremely more dangerous because the immune system is so broken down. The sign and symptoms of this final phase of HIV is soaking night sweats, persistent fever, bad diarrhea, rash or bumps, odd white spots or uncomfortable ulcers on the tongue or even around the mouth, weight loss, and random persistent fatigue.

Dan McClain is a sheriff in Scott County Indiana who opposed needle exchange programs until there was a surge in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) outbreaks that were directly influenced by the drug Opana. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linking a HIV outbreak to Opana usage within Scott County in Indiana causes the need for extreme attention to this prescription pill. In March of 2011 Scott County experienced eight new HIV cases, and just two months later that number had increased to 81 new cases, causing a significant concern for Dan McClain. He is sheriff within Scott County and wanted to know how he could quickly intercept the worst HIV outbreak Indiana had ever experienced. The untimely involvement of Opana’s in

A major epidemic across the world is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Accredited with 10% of the HIV cases annually is injection drug use (AIDS.gov, 2014). A study done in 2010 showed that injection drug use affected nearly 47,500 new HIV infections in the United States. With 625 being males and 38% being female. Breaking it down even further, African Americans made up 50% of the newly affecting using injection drugs, Whites 26%, and Latinos/ Hispanics with 21% (CDC.gov, 2015). Injection drug use can spread the HIV virus by any of the following acts: using blood-contaminated syringes to prepare drugs, reusing water, reusing bottle caps, spoons, or other containers ("cookers") to

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus, also known as HIV, was discovered by Dr. Robert Gallo and Dr. Luc Montagnier. HIV had its first known case in a human in the year 1959. Though, its first known case in the United States was in 1981 when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the CDC, reported five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California with Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia, a rare form of pneumonia. These findings were published in CDC 'S Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, which is read by physicians around the world. Soon after, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexual men had been diagnosed with a rare cancer called Kaposi 's Sarcoma. Since this disease was only spreading amongst gay men at the time,

The HIV infection and disease progression varies from person to person. It can be divided into three main categories based on how fast the disease progresses into full-blown AIDS as well as each individual’s lab results. The top and most severe tier of HIV is rapid progression of HIV. With rapid progression, AIDS developed within three years of the diagnosis. The next tier is intermediate progression. For individuals within this tier, the time it takes for HIV to progress to AIDS varies between three and ten years after the HIV virus was found to be detectable within their blood. The last tier is composed of long-term non-progressors, or LTNPs (Kumar). Despite having been diagnosed with HIV, those that fall within the LTNP category do not show symptoms. They make up only about one to five percent of the total HIV population. To be considered a long term non progressor, one must remain symptom free, maintain a low viral load without antiretroviral treatment and have a CD4+ T cell count above 500/mm3 for more than seven years

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS (auto immunodeficiency syndrome – the final stage of HIV) can be classified as one of the most devastating epidemics in United States history (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). Although still an alarming concern in public health, due to prevention strategies and medical advances, the disease is less fatal and is treated as a chronic disease (instead of a death sentence, as in the past). There are currently 1.2 million people living in the US with HIV (CDC, 2015). The highest rates transmitted through sexual intercourse or injection drug use through the exchange of bodily fluids (CDC, 2015). It is estimated that 25% of those living with HIV are women, and only

Since the beginning of time, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been plaguing African American communities at an alarmingly higher rate than any other. The initial stereotype was that only homosexual, Caucasian men had this disease (which also helped contribute to the disease even further because blacks did not think that they had the possibility of contracting HIV). Poverty plays a huge role as well because those are the blacks most affected and since they are financially unable to afford proper, necessary treatment, they fall victim to this disease. Even though they may seem or look fine at one point in time, the virus can clearly take over their body once their CD4 cell count diminishes to less than 200 cells. This weakens the immune system and opportunistic infections now have the chance to invade the body and eventually kill the HIV (now AIDS) infected individual.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been a major public health issue in the African-American community of the United States since the 1980s (Shisana et al., 2014). The documentary “ENDGAME: AIDS in Black America” shows the widespread nature of HIV in the black community. According to Renata Simone, producer of the documentary, “African Americans make up about 12 percent of the nation’s population, but account for almost half of all people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.” The documentary features personal stories and interviews with those who are infected with HIV. Simone attributed the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community to unprotected sexual activity, drugs, tainted blood transfusions, prostitution, and the stigma surrounding the disease.

HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, attacks the human immune system and greatly weakens the body’s ability to fight foreign invaders and infection. HIV first demanded notice in the early 1980s in the United States in homosexual men displaying illnesses like Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma. The disease was soon observed in IV drug users, hemophiliacs, and blood transfusion recipients, but became publicized as a “gay disease,” nicknamed by the media as GRID, or Gay-Related Immuno Deficiency. It was later renamed AIDS, or Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, in September of 1982. Before the true cause of the disease had been discovered, it had killed countless people and received immense press coverage, and the infection rate was rampant, because the cause was unknown and thus no treatment method could be developed.

Adults are not the only population affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Children are also affected by this virus. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), in the United States, there is more than a 90% decline in children who are infected with HIV prenatally since the mid-1990s. This is due to HIV testing and preventive interventions. The most common route of HIV infection in children is through perinatal transmission. Perinatal transmission is when a mother passes the infection to her baby. This transmission is through labor and delivery, breastfeeding, or during pregnancy (CDC, 2013).

There are many different theories about how humans acquired Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), but the CDC and WHO agree that it was likely passed from a chimp to a human in the 1930s or 1940s while the humans were hunting. The humans became exposed to chimpanzee blood during slaughter and the blood contained Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). SIV doesn’t infect humans and HIV doesn’t infect chimpanzees, but it is thought that eventually SIV adapted to HIV in humans. (I Know HIV, 2010)

What is HIV? HIV is a fatal disease which stands for “Human Immunodeficiency Virus” it is a failure to the immune system to protect the body from any infections. This virus causes a condition called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. When HIV is left untreated it leads to another disease called “AIDS”. It can occur in any age, race, sex or sexual orientation. The highest risk of contracting HIV is having unprotected sex and sharing needles with others. Another factor are people that have STI’s and men that are uncircumcised have a greater chance of obtaining the disease. “It is believed that the Chimpanzee version of Human Immunodeficiency virus most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV. When humans hunted these Chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood.” [Make sure you cite the person here]