The Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv )

Semen containing white blood cells infected with HIV comes into contact with tissue in the rectum and vagina. The virus can then enter the bloodstream of the host through perforations in the tissue surface. The risk of this happening is greatest in anal intercourse, either between two men or a man and a woman.” HIV is spread through a direct exchange of blood or blood products. This mode of transmission is most frequent among IV drug users who share injection needles. It includes, as well, hemophiliacs and other persons who receive blood transfusions, and fetuses of mothers who carry the AIDS virus.” AIDS has sparked considerable interest and controversy since the start of the epidemic. However, in trying to identify where AIDS originated, there is a danger that people may try and use the debate to attribute blame for the disease to particular groups of individuals or certain lifestyles. When the AIDS epidemic became offical in June 1981, it was widely considered exclusively a "gay disease” and this was because many people were confused and uneducated about this new, foreign disease that faced and ravaged our society as a whole. There is no doubt that many people coming from all walks of life were subject to discrimination when other people discovered that they were suffering as victims taken by the disease. The cultural and social response to AIDS portrayed in the film Philadelphia (1993) covered all of these aspects and was

This history of HIV/AIDS as a blurry timeline before the 1980’s since that was around the time reports came in which eventually become an HIV report. The origin of HIV can be traced back to the early part of the century. Some believe that in the 1920’s chimpanzees from the Congo came into contact with humans (Avert, 2016). Though reports were not identified as HIV until the 1980’s, the belief that HIV was already scattered throughout four other continents may have been incident (Avert, 2016). Even though for the past 30 years the world has been diligently working to find a cure and pushing prevention, we are still struggling each year with increasing diagnosis. The beginning of HIV did end with lots of death, but now with our improved antiviral medication there is hope for many.

It is often cited that the HIV/Aids epidemic that hit the United States in the 1980’s (though there is some evidence that it started even before then), came into light due to several high profile incidents and the eventual loss of several thousand lives. Many believe that due to

There are many health problems that we face globally and each of them are important for us to be aware of and to take precautions and measures to prevent and treat such diseases that affect our global population. HIV/AIDS is a disease that is spread through direct contact with body fluids from a person who is infected with the virus, these fluids include blood, semen, rectal fluid, vaginal fluids and breast milk. There are an approximate 35 million people living with the disease globally as of 2015 and about 1 million of those people are children under the age of 15 (Aids.gov, 2016). There are approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. living with the disease and of those individuals many became infected with HIV by needle or syringe sharing,

HIV is a virus that can lead to AIDS. Patients infected with HIV often shows no symptoms until the disease has progressed to AIDS. HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids, but cannot be transmitted through casual contact. Most commonly, HIV is transmitted through sexual contact. It may be transmitted through blood-to-blood contact, such as needle sharing or accidental needle sticks in a healthcare setting. It may also be transmitted during pregnancy or birth from mother to child. It cannot be transmitted through casual contact such as hugging, playing sports or touching something that was touched by someone infected (CDC, n.d).

According to a report published in the February 1998 edition of “Nature”, scientists identified what they believe is the earliest case of AIDs in a man from the Congo in 1959. (Lerner and Hombs 39) By the end of the year 1980, 80 men would have been diagnosed with at least of the opportunistic infections that are a characteristic of AIDs. (Lerner and Hombs 40) AIDs cases in the 1980s increased dramatically not only around the world but in the United States, primarily in larger cities like Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The numbers of AIDs diagnoses and deaths spiraled out of control throughout the 1980s and towards the end of 1989 there were 117,500 cases of AIDS reported and 89,000 related deaths.(Lerner and Hombs 54) In the

They were important because many of the cases that were reported were gay men and without that we might not have discovered AIDS until later and we wouldn’t know as much about it as we do now. They also helped with coming up with the symptoms and how it was transmitted.

A recent report indicates that nearly 50 Americans contract HIV each year through blood transfusions. Although every pint of blood donated in the United States undergoes a battery of nine different tests, existing screening methods can detect only the antibodies produced by the body’s immune system – not foreign agents in the blood. Since it takes weeks or even months for these antibodies to build up in the blood, newly infected HIV donors can pass along the virus through blood that has passed existing screening tests. Happily, researchers have developed a series of new tests aimed at detecting and removing infections from donated blood before it is used in transfusions. The obvious benefit of these tests is the reduced incidence of infection through blood transfusions. The report indicates that the current price of decontaminated blood is $60 per pint. However, if the new screening methods are adopted, the demand and supply for decontaminated blood will change to

Within 4 months of developing AIDS, doctors discovered that it could be transferred through sexual intercourse of the same sex. 8 months after that, doctors discovered that AIDS could be transmitted through birth which expelled the blame against homosexuals. “In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS. The virus was at first named HTLV-III/LAV (human T-cell lymphotropic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus) by an international scientific committee. This name was later changed to HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)” (“Where Did HIV Come From?”). During the 1980’s the effects of AIDS did not only pertain to the United States, countries all around the world struggled with the epidemic. One of the countries who suffered the most was Africa; due to the lack of technology and medical advancement it was difficult for their population to protect themselves. “In the mid-1980s the Western African nation of Guinea-Bissau had the world’s highest level of HIV-2, with 26% of paid blood

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,

In the past four decades, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been discovered, developed into an international epidemic, and

In the 1980’s there was a lot of reports that were emerging that a small number of men were contracting AIDS when the first case was reported in the United States, the number of deaths of people who had AIDS increased rapidly during the 1980’s, it was among men who had sex men and the majority was among racial minorities and it also increased in women who were heterosexual. Male to male sex was most common to contract AIDS and then it followed by injection of drug use, then heterosexual contact.

The origin of AIDS can be traced back to 1959 in Zaire, but it wasn’t until the 1980s where AIDS was discovered that it can be transmitted by bodily fluids and that HIV operates by destroying the T-4 cell, which makes people vulnerable to infections. This was an important as it showed retroviruses such as HIV can cause other diseases.

HIV is global pandemic stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, weakens the immune system by destroying the important cells in our body that fights against disease and infection. Our immune system is able to clear out most of the viruses from our body, but once you have HIV , you have it for lifelong. HIV can hide in our body cells for long time and it can attack the T cells and CD4 cells, a key part of our immune system to fight infections and diseases. Overtime, the HIV may attack so many of CD4 cells and our body is no more able to fight against infections. When this happens, HIV can lead to AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection. HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact, injection or drug use, pregnancy, breast feeding, occupational exposure, and rarely through blood transfusion and organ

Prevention of HIV infected blood can be greatly be reduced by screening all blood supplies for the virus and by heat-treating blood products where possible.