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HIV and AIDS

When the history of our times is written, will we be remembered as the generation that turned our backs in a moment of a global crisis or will it be recorded that we did the right thing?” - Nelson Mandela.

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This virus is transferred from person to person when an HIV positive individual’s blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk comes in contact with another person’s bloodstream (through the mouth, throat, or breaks in the skin). This viral infection usually occurs during unprotected sexual activity, but can also occur between an HIV/AIDS positive mother and her child, through an unsecure blood transfusion, and by sharing used needles.
Once infected it takes as long as 8 to 10 years for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus to effectively breakdown the bodies’ natural immune defences, which leads to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS for short. Although scientists around the world have been working hard to obtain a cure or even a vaccine for the HIV, none are currently available

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According to the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2007), about 33.2 million people are infected with HIV worldwide (which is 16% lower than 2006 estimates. So, far 2.1 million people have lost their lives to AIDS. Youth are particularly at risk as young people between the ages of 15 to 24 account for more than 40% of new HIV infections. Young women are also more at risk for contracting HIV; three times more likely than males in Sub-Saharan Africa and almost two times more likely in the Caribbean.

The most devastating effect on the world’s youth, as a result of the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus around the world, has been the alarming increase in the number of children and young people who have been orphaned by the disease. In 2007, there was an estimated 11.4 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa.

The new face of HIV/AIDS is undoubtedly global leadership or more importantly youth leadership and education. Youth leaders are raising their voices on the issue of HIV/AIDS all over the world while spreading a message of change and healing among their young peers. For example groups such as “The Young Women of Color Leadership Council” who are striving to educate at-risk youth of color on issues of HIV prevention and community leadership; “Youth Visioning” who aim to encourage and support young leaders living on small islands around the world to propose and implement projects that will effectively impact how youth experience and understand HIV/AIDS; and the “Rural Sensitization Campaign in Cameroon” who is actively challenging youth to learn and be trained on healthy sexual practices, HIV prevention and transmission, testing, and treatment, in addition to targeting young women and men, this campaign aims to involve parents and children HIV/AIDS educational programmes.

There are several other factors that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS and the marginalization of people living with HIV/AIDS, which include high levels of: Severe poverty, unemployment, inadequate medical care, and risky sexual activity. However an additional factor that often goes unnoticed is the presence of stigma that becomes associated to people living with aids (PLWA) and who have openly revealed their HIV/AIDS status in their community. Stigma may result in isolation, physical and verbal abuse, and even in the premature death of PLWA. The spread of stigma among PLWA is preventable, but it requires the community and grassroots organizations to work together to minimize the fear and the overemphasis on the problems associated to HIV/AIDS when spreading awareness about the disease.

Aids hiv

People still ask the old question about AIDS. How is the HIV passed on? I think they are right, because: AIDS is one of the biggest problems facing the world today and nobody is beyond its reach, so everyone should know the basic facts about HIV and AIDS.

While the answer is common in the literature on health and may be easily found, some like to read it here. Before giving the answer, we define the concept AIDS, which is the (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome-AIDS)  a medical condition. People develop AIDS because HIV has damaged their natural defenses against disease.  HIV is found in the blood and the sexual fluids of an infected person, and in the breast milk of an infected woman. HIV transmission occurs when a sufficient quantity of these fluids get into someone else's bloodstream. There are various ways a person may become infected with HIV. 

First: Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected person. Where sexual intercourse without a condom is risky, because the virus, which is present in an infected person's sexual fluids, can pass directly into the body of their partner. This is true for unprotected vaginal and anal sex. Oral sex however, carries a lower risk, but again HIV transmission can occur here if a condom is not used - for example, if one partner has bleeding gums or an open cut, however small, in their mouth. 

Second: Use of infected blood products Many people in the past have been infected with HIV by the use of blood transfusions and blood products which were contaminated with the virus - in hospitals, for example. In much of the world this is no longer a significant risk, as blood donations are routinely tested.

Third: From mother to child through breastfeeding,  HIV can be transmitted from an infected woman to her baby during pregnancy, delivery and  breastfeeding. There are special drugs that can greatly reduce the chances of this happening, but they are unavailable in much of the developing world. 

Fourth: Contact with an infected person's blood, in this case if sufficient blood from an infected person enters someone else's body then it can pass on the virus.

 And Finally, through injecting drugs, people who use injected drugs are also vulnerable to HIV infection. In many parts of the world, often because it is illegal to possess them, injecting equipment or works are shared. A tiny amount of blood can transmit HIV, and can be injected directly into the bloodstream with the drugs.

Hiv aids treatment

People  are  even aware that they are infected with HIV/AIDS. They can never show any physical signs, which makes it very easy to transmit to other people. The initial symptoms can be less obvious and include fever, swollen glands, headaches and muscle aches. If you are experiencing one of more of these symptoms after contact with a sexual partner who may be infected, it is important to get treatment. Find more about Dallas STD Testing Clinics.

According to medical experts, HIV/AIDS can be the cause of the most dreadful epidemic mankind has ever witnessed. Human immunodeficiency virus is a sexually transmitted infection that does not have any cure till date. All the available treatment options for this disease are capable of suppressing the symptoms. Highly active retroviral therapy or HAART is one the treatment option highly recommended by a panel of leading AIDS specialists.

The basic objective of HAART method is to improve the life expectancy of a HIV-infected person by reducing the amount of virus present in the blood to very low or almost undetectable levels. This objective is achieved by means of administrating more than 2 different kinds of anti-retroviral drugs as a combination therapy. These anti-retroviral drugs are medications used for the treatment of infections caused by retroviruses like HIV. There are six different classes of antiretroviral drugs available in the market whose function is to act as potent inhibitors at different stages of HIV lifecycle and prevent the growth, replication and proliferation of the virus.

Combination of antiretroviral drugs belonging to different classes helps in creating multiple obstacles for the virus at each stage of its lifecycle thus reducing the ability of the virus to replicate. This strategy has also been effective against drug-resistant strains of HIV. Drug-resistant strains arise as a result of mutations occurring in the viral genome.  The most favored combination of antiretroviral drugs in a HAART method is the triple-cocktail approach where two nucleoside-analogue RTIs and one non-nucleoside-analogue RTI or a protease inhibitor are used.