ACQUIRED IMMUNE DIFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS) RISKS

ACQUIRED IMMUNE DIFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS) RISKS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk. This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

HIV causes diseases insidiously. The early stages of infection may not be noticed by the infected individual. The infected person may feel healthy and appear to be completely normal during this time (the asymptomatic period), but such a person is able to transmit the infection. 

AIDS is considered a pandemic. In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there are 33.4 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 2.7 million new HIV infections per year and 2.0 million annual deaths due to AIDS. In 2007, UNAIDS estimated: 33.2 million people worldwide had AIDS that year; AIDS killed 2.1 million people in the course of that year, including 330,000 children, and 76% of those deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected, with some 25 million deaths, and 14 million orphaned children in southern Africa alone since the epidemic began.

Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s.

Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is no known cure or vaccine. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus. 

There are medications that can dramatically slow the progression of the disease. These drugs have reduced AIDS deaths in many developed nations. But HIV continues to decimate populations in Africa, Haiti and parts of Asia. 

The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages.

Opportunistic infections are common in people with AIDS. These infections affect nearly every organ system.

People with AIDS also have an increased risk of developing various cancers such as Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer and cancers of the immune system known as lymphomas. Additionally, people with AIDS often have systemic symptoms of infection like fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss. The specific opportunistic infections that AIDS patients develop depend in part on the prevalence of these infections in the geographic area in which the patient lives.

The symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary, depending on the phase of infection. Within the first few weeks; when first infected with HIV, you may have no signs or symptoms at all, although you're still able to transmit the virus to others. Many people develop a brief flu-like illness two to four weeks after becoming infected. Signs and symptoms may include; fever, headache, sore throat, swollen lymph glands and rash.

Next, years later; you may remain symptom-free for years. But as the virus continues to multiply and destroy immune cells, you may develop mild infections or chronic symptoms such as; swollen lymph nodes — often one of the first signs of HIV infection, diarrhea, weight loss, fever, cough and shortness of breath.

Then, the progression to AIDS. If you receive no treatment for your HIV infection, the disease typically progresses to AIDS in about 10 years. By the time AIDS develops, your immune system has been severely damaged, making you susceptible to opportunistic infections — diseases that wouldn't trouble a person with a healthy immune system. The signs and symptoms of some of these infections may include; soaking night sweats, shaking chills or fever higher than 100 ℉ (38℃) for several weeks, cough and shortness of breath, chronic diarrhea, persistent white spots or unusual lesions on your tongue or in your mouth, headaches, persistent, unexplained fatigue, blurred and distorted vision, weight loss and skin rashes or bumps. 

AIDS patients often develop opportunistic infections that present with non-specific symptoms, especially low-grade fevers and weight loss. These include opportunistic infection with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare and cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV can cause colitis, as described above, and CMV retinitis can cause blindness.

Penicilliosis due to Penicillium marneffei is now the third most common opportunistic infection (after extrapulmonary tuberculosis and cryptococcosis) in HIV-positive individuals within the endemic area of Southeast Asia.

An infection that often goes unrecognized in AIDS patients is Parvovirus B19. Its main consequence is anemia, which is difficult to distinguish from the effects of antiretroviral drugs used to treat AIDS itself. 

Scientists believe a virus similar to HIV first occurred in some populations of chimps and monkeys in Africa, where they're hunted for food. Contact with an infected monkey's blood during butchering or cooking may have allowed the virus to cross into humans and become HIV.

HIV destroys CD4 cells — a specific type of white blood cell that plays a large role in helping your body fight disease. Your immune system weakens as more CD4 cells are killed. You can have an HIV infection for years before it progresses to AIDS.

To be diagnosed with AIDS, you must have a CD4 count under 200 or experience an AIDS-defining complication, such as; pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, cytomegalovirus, tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis.

To become infected with HIV, infected blood, semen or vaginal secretions must enter your body. You can't become infected through ordinary contact — hugging, kissing, dancing or shaking hands — with someone who has HIV or AIDS. HIV cannot be transmitted through the air, water or via insect bites.

You can become infected with HIV in several ways. First and foremost, HIV can be transmitted during sex. You may become infected if you have vaginal, anal or oral sex with an infected partner whose blood, semen or vaginal secretions enter your body. The virus can enter your body through mouth sores or small tears that sometimes develop in the rectum or vagina during sexual activity.

Secondly, blood transfusions. In some cases, the virus may be transmitted through blood transfusions. American hospitals and blood banks now screen the blood supply for HIV antibodies, so this risk is very small.

Next is by sharing needles. HIV can be transmitted through needles and syringes contaminated with infected blood. Sharing intravenous drug paraphernalia puts you at high risk of HIV and other infectious diseases such as hepatitis.

Lastly, HIV also can be transmitted from mother to child. Infected mothers can infect their babies during pregnancy or delivery, or through breast-feeding. But if women receive treatment for HIV infection during pregnancy, the risk to their babies is significantly reduced. 

When HIV/AIDS first surfaced in the United States, it predominantly affected homosexual men. The type of HIV found in many African nations is more easily spread through heterosexual sex. Anyone of any age, race, sex or sexual orientation can be infected.

One of the highest tendencies for AIDS risks is when he or she is having unprotected sex. Unprotected sex means having sex without using a new latex or polyurethane condom every time. Anal sex is more risky than is vaginal sex. The risk increases if you have multiple sexual partners.

The next one is someone who is having another sexual transmission disease (STD). Many sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) produce open sores on your genitals. These sore act as doorways for HIV to enter your body.

Furthermore, the usage of intravenous drugs also may give you high risk or tendency towards HIV. People who use intravenous drugs often share needles and syringes. This exposes them to droplets of other people's blood.

Other than above risks factors, an uncircumcised man is also having a high tendency to receive such pandemic. Studies indicate that lack of circumcision increases the risk for heterosexual transmission of HIV.