HIV/AIDS
No one can be certain about how or when the AIDS virus emerged. The closest related disease would be a simian immunodeficiency virus. This is where the suggestion arose that this disease was first contracted from a primate. It has also been thought that this once primate-only disease had evolved and somehow became transmitted to people. On June 5, 1981, the first report of AIDS hit the United States. The people weren't quite sure of what they were dealing with, so mistakenly, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released an article concerning a strange outbreak of pneumonia within the male homosexual community. What we have now come to call as AIDS has grown into public health and is a worldwide phenomenon, which has yet to cease spreading. The disease is contracted so rapidly that researchers say no matter how bad things seem to be; the worst has yet to come.
HIV is a life-threatening disease that attacks your body in a matter of about nine quick steps. First, this virus attacks by disabling a body's immune system and mixes things up so that your body begins to produce the virus. Next, the virus enters each cell by attaching to the cell receptors. The viral core enters the cell and the protein envelope fuses with the cell wall. Then it enters the nucleus and fuses into cellular DNA. This leads to the good cells producing the HIV cells. To make HIV the viral DNA and the RNA create and enzyme known as protease. These new cells gather at the edge of the wall and become infectious proteins. Once these proteins are formed, the viral particles exit the cell and begin again. As a result the newly formed virus spread like fire, rapidly infecting the remainder of the healthy cells.
The HIV virus is transmitted in one or more of the three ways listed. They are sexual intercourse, direct contact with infected blood, and transmission from an infected woman to her baby. The most common source of infection comes as a result of sexual intercourse, which includes anal, oral and genital. Although this virus was first introduced as the homosexual disease, statistics show that HIV is becoming more frequent in heterosexual men and women. Contamination by infected blood can occur in many forms.
AIDS/HIV was first recognized as a new disease in the US when clinicians in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco began to see young, homosexual men with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and Kaposi 's sarcoma (KS), unusual diseases for young adults which were not known to be immunosuppressed. These discoveries led to increased fear throughout the US since many people didn’t know what caused AIDS, how it could be contracted, or even what to call it.
Different people define success in many different ways. What is considered success by one person may be viewed as failure by another person. Randy Shilts, a homosexual newspaper reporter / author, attempts to make fundamental changes in America’s opinion on AIDS. In Randy Shilts’s essay, "Talking AIDS to Death," he speaks of his experiences as an "AIDS celebrity." At the core of Shilts’s essay is the statement, "Never before have I succeeded so well; never before have I failed so miserably"(221). Shilts can see his accomplishments from two points of view- as a success and as a failure. Despite instant fame, Shilts is not satisfied with the effects his writings has on the general public. Shilts’s "success" and reasons for failure can both be considered when one decides whether or not his efforts were performed in vain.
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus which is a virus that attacks the human immune system. Once the body is unable to continue fighting the infection, the disease is more severe and known as AIDS. It usually takes more than 10 years to progress from the HIV virus to AIDS which is a deadly disease that has killed over than 25 million people around the world. HIV can be transmitted between people many different ways. Any kind of unprotected sexual intercourse is a very common way for HIV to be passed on. As well sharing needles, unsterilized tools for tattoos or piercings and exposure in health care settings. HIV can even be passed on to an infant during birth by their infected mother.
Today millions of people globally are plagued with HIV/AIDS; some of which were contracted unknowingly through heterosexual sexual contact, others unknowingly through homosexual contact and surprisingly some who set out to contract HIV/AIDS purposefully. Bareback sex refers to intercourse without the use of any barrier protections to prevent the transmission of bodily fluids between participants. This is an extremely high risk behavior given the number of sexually transmitted diseases, and not knowing the status of HIV in them or in their partners. Unfortunately, in some developing countries the technology and condom supply are very little in respect to the sexually active population, and therefore results in more cases of STD’s and HIV/AIDS.
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.
According to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, “more than 35 million people live with HIV/AIDS worldwide, 3.3 million of them are under the age of 15. In 2012 an estimated 2.3 million people were newly infected with HIV, 260,000 were under the age of 15. Every day nearly 6,300 people contract HIV - nearly 262 every hour. In 2012, 1.6 million people died from AIDS, 210,000 of them were under the age of 15. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 75 million people have contracted HIV and nearly 36 million have died of HIV-related causes”. This disease is transferred from one person to another by blood, semen & pre-seminal fluid, vaginal secretions, breast milk, hypodermic needles and from mother to unborn child through the placenta.
HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce.
HIV is believed to be a mutation of the virus found in chimpanzees that cause immunodeficiency in Africa. It is supposed that the virus infected, human during hunting chimpanzee for meat and came in contacts with their blood (CDC, 2016). In the United States the first case of HIV was reported in June 1981 in homosexuals (Qian, Taylor, Fawal & Vermund, 2006).
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada HIV – the Human Immunodeficiency Virus - is a virus that attacks the immune system, resulting in a chronic, progressive illness that leaves people vulnerable to opportunistic infections and cancers. (Canada 2008) Essentially over time, when your body can no longer battle the virus it progresses into a disease know as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. The transmition of HIV occurs when a person’s contaminated body fluids enter another individual. Unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal or oral), sharing needles, using unsterilized equipment for body modification, mother to infant transmition, as well as occupational exposure in health care are all ways HIV can be spread. HIV/AIDS as an illness is relatively new. The first reported case of AIDS in the world was in 1981, and a year later in Canada. Scientists all around the world are busy searching for a cure or vaccine to treat the millions of people internationally dying of HIV/AIDS.
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.
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.
HIV/AIDS is a very new disease discovered only 30 years ago. No one knows for sure how the disease came to be, but the fact that is extremely deadly (in fact one of the leading causes of death worldwide) cannot be disputed. Since signs and symptoms of HIV are pretty much invisible at first, it is nearly impossible to know when and where HIV first started. The pandemic began in the 1970s when it spread to five continents; North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. There was a, “period of silence” during this time because people were afraid to say that they had contracted this new virus and were not aware of its severity. Due to this period of silence it is said that anywhere from 100,000-300,000 people become infected from 1970-1980. HIV transmission can occur in three ways: sexual transmission, transmission through blood and mother to child transmission (avert.org). Since the means in which the disease is spread are very complex, it became clear very shortly after the disease was recognized that something needed to be done at a global level.
HIV, better known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, has been around for many years. It seeks and destroys cells within the body. HIV is like many other viruses, such as, the flu or the common cold. However, over time those viruses can be cleared out of your body, but HIV is nothing like that; the human immune system cannot get rid of it. The virus gets very strong over time and begin to kill certain cells, such as, your T-cells. Over time, HIV can destroy so many cells that your body will not be able to fight off simple infections. When this happens, HIV can lead to AIDS. AIDS is Acquired immunodeficiency Syndrome. 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.
Many eyebrows raised late in 1979, when the then unkown HIV virus raised its ugly head. The first two cases of the rare cancer, Karposis Sarcoma was diagnosed in two homosexual men in N>Y>C. About the same time in Los Angeles, several cases of the rare infection, Pneumocytis cariini pneumonia were being treated. Incidences of these strange diseases and infections were sky-rocketting around the country. The disease was effecting mostly young gay men in their 30's. There was no official name for the syndrome, but it was referred to by various names, GRID (gay related inmmune disease), Gay Cancer, and, "Community Acquired Syndrome". In 1982 public health officials began to use the term, Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease (AIDS) to describe the incidences of oppotunistic infections that caused AIDS. Scientists discovered the virus that caused AIDS in 1983 (HorowitzXV). According to Brennnan Durack, this was the dawning of AIDS epidemic, or the beginnning of the public's awareness of AIDS (Durack 385-386).
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.