A Leader of Death

AIDS and HIV The HIV virus poses one of the biggest viral threats to human society today. It is contracted through bodily fluids such as blood and semen, and sometimes even saliva and tears. AIDS kills 100% of its victims and puts them through agony before they die. It has been a threat for about 15 years, and it is not going to stop now. In fact, AIDS is just getting started:  It consumes more people each year.

These are all false beliefs,proven through many scientific studies. Hemophiliacs have contracted AIDS, after having been giving transfusions of blood which was contaminated with the HIV virus. Drug addicts have been infected through the intravenous injection of drugs with “second hand” or dirty needles used by someone who carried the HIV virus. Prostitutes contract and spread AIDS through sexual activity with several different partners without knowing their partners' sexual history. This in turn, leads to the spread of the disease throughout the heterosexual community.

This is the final stage of HIV. At this stage, the immune system is destroyed. Everyone that has HIV will not go on to develop AIDS. Symptoms of this may include fever, chills, rashes, mouth of genital ulcers and/or swollen lymph glands. Many people are unaware of these diseases and being unaware makes them prone to spreading them.

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. 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.

Many people who are infected with HIV do not even show signs for 10 years or more. The next stage is the “clinical latency” stage. During this stage, people who are infected experience no symptoms. If you do not take medication, this stage can turn into AIDS. Once the virus attacks all of your T-cells or CD4 cells, the infection can lead to AIDS.

The first step is the serioconversion illness. This symptoms of this illness is very similar to the flu and an affected individual will typically experience this 1-2 months after connection with HIV. The next phase is asymptomatic infection in which the patient does not have any symptoms. During this step the immune system is starting to go downhill. A great deal depends on how long this phase will last such as, how fast the HIV virus replicates and how the patient’s body deals with the virus.

In the United States HIV is mainly spread by having unprotected sex with someone who is infected by the HIV virus. Anal sex is the highest risk, followed by vaginal sex. You are more likely to become infected with the virus if you have multiple sex partners or other sexually transmitted diseases. Also, it is a bad idea to share needles, syringes, or rinse water with someone who is infected with the HIV virus. However, children can be born from a mother who is infected and it can be passed on to the child during birth.

AIDS AIDS, is known as, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus is transmitted from one person to another through means of intimate sexual contact or exchange of blood or bodily fluids “(whether from contaminated hypodermic needles or syringes, transfusions of infected blood, or transmission from an infected mother to her child before or during birth)” (Schaefer; p. 119). AIDS has become a worldwide epidemic that has struck every identifiable group. However, persons who are considered to be in a high-risk group of contracting HIV are still stigmatized by the media and other professionals as being diseased. Individuals persist that AIDS is a gay disease and that if one is not gay, one is immune from it.

The human immune system can't seem to get rid of it. Why the virus is incurable has been the top question of scientist whom for years, has been trying to find the solution to cure the virus. For long periods of time, HIV hides in the cells in your body and attacks the main part of the immune system. HIV takes over the cells that fight infections and diseases for your body, and uses them to reproduce itself. Over time, HIV can destroy so many of your CD4 cells that your body can't fight infections and diseases anymore.

A person can be HIV positive for years without developing illnesses that are associated with the A.I.D.S. disease. HIV is characterized by a gradual deterioration of the immune system. Cells known as T-Helper cells are disabled and killed during the course of the infection. These cells play an important part in the human body because they signal other cells to perform their special functions.