The Continuing Threat of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is HIV that develops into AIDS, which is Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This virus starts to break down white blood cells, as a result the immune system starts to deteriorate and our greatest shield cannot fight any longer (Mayo Clinic, 2016). The CDC (2015) states, that over 1.2 million people live with HIV in the United States and most who are infected are oblivious of their disease. Healthy people 2020 has declared HIV a public health crisis in the United States, and continues to sweep the nation with more than 500,000 new cases each year (HealthyPeople2020,2016).

In 2011 there were an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. 1 This rate has increased since 2009, when an estimated 22.5 million people were existing with Aids, as well as 2.3 million children. 2 In 2012, more than 1.1-million individuals were believed to have dies from AIDS-related

In 2014, 1.2 million people died from HIV and its related causes. In the same year, about 36.9 million people were living with HIV. Among these, 2 million were newly infected in 2014. The rate of infection has reduced by 35% between the years of 2000 and 2015. Between the same years, mortality due to HIV fell by 24%. The area with the most HIV/AIDS victims is Sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, 25.8 million people were living with HIV in 2014. The region also has 70% of the newly infected victims in the world. It is very unfortunate that more than 50% of people with HIV know that they have it. HIV testing efforts have improved with 150 million in 129 low and middle income counties getting tested. It was reported in 2015 that 15.8 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy (World Health Organization,

Sub-Saharan Africa has the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. In 2013, an estimated 24.7 million people were living with HIV, accounting for 71% of the global total. In the same year, there were an estimated 1.5 million new HIV infections and 1.1 million AIDS-related deaths. The second largest country most impacted by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is Lesotho.

At the end of 2009, an estimated 33.3 million people globally were living with HIV. In that year alone, there were an estimated 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths and 2.6 million new HIV infections. Data from 2009 shows that the AIDS epidemic is beginning to change course as the number of people newly infected with HIV is declining and AIDS –related deaths are decreasing. This is in large part due to more people living longer as access to antiretroviral theraphy increases, but these gains remain fragile and disparities continue to exist among countries and within countries. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region most affected with 69% of all new infections and in seven mostly Eastern European and Central Asian countries, new HIV infection rates have increased by 25%.

Although ninety-five percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are in developing countries, the impact of this epidemic is global. In South Africa, where one in four adults are living with the disease, HIV/AIDS means almost certain death for those infected. In developed countries however, the introduction of antiretroviral drugs has meant HIV/AIDS is treated as a chronic condition rather than a killer disease. In developing countries like South Africa, the drugs that allow people to live with the disease elsewhere in the world, are simply too expensive for individuals and governments to afford at market price.

Approximately 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the United States alone. Of those 1.2 million, 13 percent did not know they were infected (Basic Statistics, 2016). These numbers are very startling. HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, attacks the body’s immune system, more specifically its T cells. With HIV weakening the immune system it can lead to a greater risk for infection, and eventually Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Thirty-three million people have AIDS in the world. Africa has two-thirds of that number. According to the United Nations Aids Program on HIV/Aids, and World Health Organization (WHO), estimates, seven out of ten people newly infected with HIV in 1998 live in sub Saharan Africa.

Human immunodeficieny virus (HIV) is a virus that produces AIDS (HIV/AIDS: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia). The HIV virus attacks and weakens a person immune system. People with weaker immune systems are at higher risk of contracting infections or cancers. The HIV virus is spread from person to person through sexual contact, blood, and from mother to child. The people that are at higher risk of contracting HIV are drug users who share needles, and people who have unprotected sex. When someone is diagnosed with HIV they often have to get blood test to check their CD4 cell count. A person that is healthy has a CD4 count that is from 500-1500 cells per cubic milliliter of blood. A person that becomes infected with HIV may start to feel symptoms when their CD4 count drops below 350. If the count drops under 200 then the person is diagnosed with AIDS. The name of the treatment that people with HIV/AIDS receive is called antiretroviral therapy (ART).Overall, people that undergo treatment and take care of themselves can live a normal life (HIV/AIDS: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia).

The HIV infection and AIDS continues to be a major cause of illness and ultimately death in the United States. The United States Centers for Disease controls estimates approximately one in 200 American are infected with the disease without even knowing it. Worldwide, 17 million people are reported to be infected with HIV and four million of these have full blown AIDS. It is estimated that 62 percent of HIV cases that have been reported have died from AIDS. Though scientists are working diligently to find a cure, all cases of AIDS that are known have inevitably died.

Once measured as a death sentence, the disease known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is now classified as a chronic disease. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a potentially life-threatening condition that is caused by the human virus known as HIV. HIV damages the body’s immune system by destroying the fighter cells, which helps the body fight and kill harmful organisms and disease. The symptoms are treatable, but no cure has been found. This virus has displayed the proclivity that society does not care about color, sex, age, or religious beliefs. This only makes finding a cure a full-time job for the whole world. Some individuals in society believe that there is a cure for this disease, but

Most of them do not know they carry HIV and may be spreading the virus to others. Here in the U.S., nearly one million people have HIV infection or AIDS, or roughly one out of every 250 people. At least 40,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV each year, and it is estimated that half of all people with HIV in the U.S. have not been tested and do not know they are carrying the virus.

In 2015, worldwide - approximately 37 million adults and children had HIV or AIDS, 2 million were newly infected that year, and 1 million people died of the condition. Sub-Saharan Africa makes up about 75% of the word’s HIV-infected population. Approximately 3.3 million children have HIV/AIDS in the world – most of these patients are born in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

AIDS is a known issue when it comes to global health, however, the region it has the most impact on is Africa. The human immunodeficiency virus, more commonly known as HIV, is a retrovirus. A retrovirus is basically a virus or group of viruses that insert into a host cell in order to replicate. HIV affects cells of the immune system, and destroys or impairs their function. As HIV progresses, the immune system weakens, which causes the person infected to become more susceptible to other illnesses. HIV at its most advanced stage is called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, otherwise known as AIDS. It can take 10-15 years for an HIV-infected person to develop AIDS. HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, transfusion of contaminated blood, sharing of contaminated needles, and between a mother and her infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. HIV infection is usually diagnosed through blood tests detecting whether or not there are HIV antibodies. There is no cure for HIV infection. However, effective antiretroviral drugs can control the virus to an extent, so people living with HIV can live healthier and more productive lives (World Health Organization). Eastern and Southern Africa only accounts for five percent of the world’s population, however it is home to half the world’s population that is living with HIV. The region has been and continues to be the center of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and accounts for 48% of the world’s new HIV infections

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”).