Behaviors to Reduce the Risk of HIV Infection
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the pathogen that destroys the body’s immune system allowing the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids). Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids) is a disorder of the human immune system in a person infected with HIV, characterized by severe breakdown of the immune system that leaves a person very susceptible to opportunistic infections. An opportunistic infection is an infection that would probably not have the opportunity to invade the body if a person’s immune system were healthy.
HIV Infection
Ø A virus is one of the smallest pathogens that can cause disease. Like other viruses, HIV cannot replicate by itself. However, when HIV enters a person’s body, it attaches to a part of the helper T cell, takes control of the helper T cell, and reproduces it’s genetic material in the helper T cell. The virus multiplies inside the helper T cell, causing an interruption in the signals for help in the form of antibodies.
Ø The result of this is an unchecked spread of HIV and the eroding of the ability of the immune system to defend itself against other pathogens.
Ø Most people have no symptoms when they are first infected. You must have a test to be sure you have HIV.
Ø It could take as little as a few weeks to many years for any symptoms to appear.
Ø Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, weight loss, tiredness, and enlarged lymph nodes.
Transmission of HIV
There are five ways of transmission of HIV.
Ø Sexual Transmission: People who have open lesions and engage in sexual behavior are especially vulnerable to infection with HIV. The more sexual partners you have, the greater your risk.
It can travel through a person’s
· blood,
· semen
· vaginal secretions
HIV can enter through
· cuts
· sores in the skin
· moist lining of the vagina
· moist lining of the penis
The only way to completely avoid sexual transmission is to abstain from sexual intercourse or to engage in sexual intercourse only with an uninfected partner who is committed to a monogamous relationship. Latex condoms have been shown to help reduce the risk of transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Ø Needle Transmission: Sharing needles to inject intravenous drugs if the most dangerous form of needle sharing. Even the needles used for tattooing and piercing ears.
Ø Mother-to-baby Transmission: If a female is infected before or during pregnancy, her child has about a one in three chance of being born with the HIV infection.
It is a virus that gradually attacks the immune system, which is our body 's natural defence against illness. If a person becomes infected with HIV, they will find it harder to fight off infections and diseases. AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS is a syndrome caused by the HIV virus. It is when a person’s immune system is too weak to fight off infections, and develops when the HIV infection is very advanced.
HIV travels through blood semen and vaginal fluids. When I say transmitted it mean as in a sexual, needle sharing, mother to child, doctor. Statistics states that 25% of babies born to be HIV-infected because the women are inflected with vines. So, this mean either the father gave the infection to the money because people shouldn’t wont their child to go back to take l’s. It very informative the you know that HIV travels in the blood. You could accidently be exposed to HIV because if you are a doctor or nurse seriously. You can also be infected with HIV by your spouse sperm who may have been infected. New born babies are infected with HIV through the breast milk of a mother that is infected with HIV. People don’t understand that as soon as you feel or believe it is something wrong with you go to doctor. Even if you are perfectly find but you are sexually active you need to get tested for any kind of infections. Because it better to be safe than sorry. Getting or having HIV is nothing to play with. There are some ways to prevent from getting HIV/AIDS. Such as protected sex because even though that person may say I don’t have any infections you don’t know that you can only that their word but just be on the safe side of things. Also by limiting the number of people you have sex with, because the more partners you have the more likely to be at least one that has HIV whose HIV is not controlled. Next doctor visit speak with your health care provider about pre-exposure prophylaxis. Prep is just an HIV prevention option for people who don’t have HIV but who are at high risk of becoming infected with
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retro virus that causes AIDS. HIV is a virus that can only be contracted between human to human. HIV weakens your immune system because this virus is destroying cells that fight diseases and infection in your body. A virus can only produce itself by taking over a cell in the body of its h...
A: AIDS is caused by the virus called the Human Immunodefiency Virus or HIV. HIV is a retrovirus. Initially when your body is infected with the virus, it takes time for it to take its toll on the immune system. At this point its affect may not be apparent for years. HIV becomes AIDS when one has less than 200 CD4+ cells per milliliter in their blood.
HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus; this virus can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Accoring to Avert, 2.6 million people became infected with HIV in 2009, there are now an estimated 33.3 million people around the world who are living with HIV. HIV is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids via sharing contaminated syringes, from infected mother to the child, and sexual contact. Contact with blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk, or saliva that is contaminated with HIV, puts an individual at higher risk for contracting HIV. However, HIV cannot be transmitted by touch, coughing, or by bits from insect vectors.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that your body can’t get rid of. This virus sits in your body and attack your immune system and essential virus fighting cells. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the final stage of HIV infection. At this point of HIV people have badly damaged immune systems, which put them at risk for other disease and infections.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are generally transmitted through sexual contact, during unprotected sexual intercourse, some are also transmitted from mother to child during antenatal, intranatal and postnatal period and through unsafe blood, blood products, donated organs or tissues and contaminated needles, their consequences are more devastating and prevalent among women than men.1
According to the World Health Organization, HIV/AIDS is the leading infectious killer in the world with the death toll estimated around 36 million people (WHO, 2014). HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. HIV is very different from other communicable disease because the virus takes over cells in the body and weakens the immune system. It does that by destroying healthy, important cells that fight off disease and infection. The reason your immune system cannot fight this virus is still a question many scientists are seeking to answer, (AIDS, 2014). Scientists know that HIV is capable of being undetected in the cells of our bodies for long periods of time. The HIV virus invades our T cells, which are in charge of cellular immunity, and is able to duplicate itself in these cells and then destroy them. When too many T cells become destroyed the body is unable to fight off this virus, which leads to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS, (AIDS, 2014).
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an enveloped retrovirus. It affects the immune system and the body loses its ability to fight diseases. It is mainly transferred by sexual contact. However, it can also be transmitted by contact with body fluid like blood, breast milk and so on (CDC, 2016). A patient is said to have AIDS when he/her suffer from many opportunistic infections (CDC, 2016).
HIV, like many other STD's is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse. However, it can also be transmitted by infected "blood transfusions", an infected mother to fetus, and sharing infected needles as well as breast milk (2009, NIAID). The reason it is really unlikely that a person should contract this virus by skin contact, is because the way HIV invades a person's system (2009, NIAID). The virus itself has special markers on its plasma membrane called "CD Markers" that locate specific cells within a person's body that target specific cells such as helper-T Cells and Microphages (2012, Phelan). The HIV virus cannot invade cells that it cannot latch on to, so a handshake with a person who has HIV will not transfer the disease because skin cells do not have the appropriate receptors that the virus can attack. When the HIV cells find the specific cell it targets, they attach themselves to its surface and then releases its DNA proteins into the cell. The virus's DNA then take over the host cell's DNA and commands it to create copies of the HIV virus. The cell produces viral RNA which creates viral proteins that migrate to the cell edge and form an undeveloped HIV virus which then is expelled from the cell and matures into a new copy of the HIV virus.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), specific group of diseases or conditions that result from suppression of the immune system, related to infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A person infected with HIV gradually loses immune function along with certain immune cells called CD4 T-lymphocytes or CD4 T-cells, causing the infected person to become vulnerable to pneumonia, fungus infections, and other common ailments. With the loss of immune function, a clinical syndrome (a group of various illnesses that together characterize a disease) develops over time and eventually results in death due to opportunistic infections (infections by organisms that do not normally cause disease except in people whose immune systems have been greatly weakened) or cancers.
HIV, also known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. If left untreated, HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells in the body, which makes a person more likely to get infections or infection-related cancers. HIV can also lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), if it is not being treated (aids.gov). There is no effective cure for HIV, however with proper treatment and medical care, HIV can be controlled. In
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a disease (lentivirus) of the immune system caused by infection with human immunodeficiency virus. It is characterized by a short period of flu-like symptoms followed by a long period of little to no symptoms. As HIV progresses further eventually into AIDS, one’s chances of getting opportunistic infections and tumours that would not normally affect someone with a normally working immune system.
In 1981, a new fatal, infectious disease was diagnosed--AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome). It began in major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. People, mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users, were dying from very rare lung infections or from a cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma. They have not seen people getting these diseases in numerous years. Soon, it also affected hemophiliacs, blood recipients, prostitutes and their customers, and babies born from AIDS-infected women. AIDS was soon recognized as a worldwide health emergency, and as a fatal disease with no known cure, that quickly became an epidemic. When high-profile victims began to contract the virus, such as basketball star Magic Johnson, the feeling spread quickly that anyone, not just particular groups of people, could be at risk. AIDS impairs the human body’s immune system and leaves the victim susceptible to various infections. With new research, scientists think that the disease was first contracted through a certain type of green monkey in Africa, then somehow mutated into a virus that a human could get. AIDS is a complicated illness that may involve several phases. It is caused by a virus that can be passed from person to person. This virus is called HIV, or Human Immuno-deficiency Virus. In order for HIV to become full-blown AIDS, your T-cell count (number of a special type of white-blood cells that fight off diseases) has to drop below 200, or you have to get one of the symptoms of an AIDS-induced infection.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a fatal physical condition that is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus damages the human body’s immune system, so that the body cannot protect itself from bacteria, viruses, and prions that cause diseases. With severely lowered defenses, AIDS patients die from common illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, cold, and tuberculosis. The HIV virus does not directly attack its victim; the disease that patients suffer from after receiving the virus is what hurts and kills them.