What is AIDS? It is a condition that involves your immune system. According to studies, it is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus which attacks the system that is responsible for protecting us from different diseases. For you to understand how it works let’s go deeper into the cellular level. In your body, you have a cell that is commonly called as the T-cell (cell mediated immunity). Within this T-cell, we have the CD4. This CD4 plays a vital role on our immune system. Without this CD4, our immune system will become weak. The human immunodeficiency virus that causes the AIDS is first seen within our blood stream after exposure from another person who has it. Within our blood stream, it starts to invade into our immune system by destructing the CD4. Some said that AIDS is the only condition that kills the victim. That is not totally true. A death of a person who has AIDS is caused by the complications of the disease that entered the body due to the low immune status. What is so bad with this condition is that it duplicates within our body causing a bigger destruction to our immune system.

In young individuals the human immunodeficiency virus has an average incubation period of about sixteen to seventeen months. The signs and symptoms of children who have AIDS is the same like what adults have except for those manifestations relevant to sexually transmitted diseases. Children with this condition will have a higher chance of having secondary diseases. These include Otitis Media, sepsis, and chronic salivary gland enlargement. Severe complications brought by AIDS to children include mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex function, severe pneumonia, lymphoid interstitial pneumonia, and pneumocystis  carinii. The occurrence of AIDS in a child is brought by a mother who has AIDS. It is during the pregnancy period where the mother passes her blood to the baby. Remember that the transfer of this condition is possible through blood contact.

What are the minor signs of AIDS?

1. Continuous cough for about a month

2. Generalized skin inflammation

3. On and off manifestations of herpes zoster

4. Enlarged lymph nodes

These minor signs can be an early manifestation of an individual having AIDS.

What are the major signs of AIDS?

1. Weight loss

2. Prolonged occurrence of diarrhea

3. Chronic fever (may last for one month)

What are the modes of transmission of AIDS/HIV?

1. Sexual intercourse. This is considered to be the most common transmission of HIV.

2. Blood transfusion. This happens because of an act of negligence coming from the health care providers.

3. Perinatal transmission. This is through an exposure of an infected blood from the mother to the baby.

What are the diagnostic procedures for AIDS/HIV?

1. ELISA or the enzyme link immunosorbent assay. This is a test done to help confirm the condition.

2. Western blot analysis, this is the most important part of the diagnostic procedure. This is considered to be the one that confirms the presence of HIV.

3 HIV anti-body tests. This antibody is specific to HIV only. This is the one that is released by our body after the entrance of the HIV.

How to prevent this condition?

1. Health education. This is what you get after reading this article.

2. Maintain universal precautions. This is what health care workers should do.

3. Know your partner

What’s the treatment?

There is no total treatment to remove the virus out of our body. What we can do is to only limit its duplication through the use of a reverse transcriptase inhibitor.

AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV and is characterized by the weakening of the immune system, thereby making the patient vulnerable to other types of infections and tumours’.  A recent report from the United Nations creates the illusion that AIDS infections are tapering off.   The United Nations says that AIDS cases peaked in 1996, almost 13 years ago.

Estimates in 2007 have placed the total number of people with AIDS or HIV at around 30 million to 36 million, while more than 25 million have been thought to die from the disease since 1981.  The hardest hit has been the African continent, and most new cases involve people who are under 25 years old.

Transmission and Prevention

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is transmitted by:

- Having unprotected sex with an infected person,

- An infected mother passing it on to an unborn child, or during labour and childbirth, or

- Getting transfused with infected blood.

The killer disease can thus infect anybody, but high risk groups have been identified: older people, women, children, drug users, gay men, and prostitutes.  Much of the prevention effort in HIV and AIDS prevention are focused on people who do not have it yet.  Every year, we are bombarded with ads, infomercial, and pamphlets telling us how to avoid getting the disease.  From abstinence from sex, to being faithful, to using condoms, to avoiding drug use or sharing needles, people around the world are being instructed on how to avoid the disease.

The good news is, much of the focus is now geared towards those who have been infected.  The so-called people living with AIDS/HIV are now being educated on how to make sure that they do not infect other people with the disease.  On top of that, they are also given the knowledge on how to manage their own health and the disease, while also being provided the support they need to live with AIDS or HIV.

Symptoms

AIDS symptoms are varied, but generally, these involve infections that do not normally trouble healthy people.  Bacterial, fungal and viral infections plague an AIDS patient and can very well affect every organ in the body.  AIDS patients are also susceptible to a variety of cancers like cervical cancer and Kaposi’s sarcoma.   They may also have higher incidences of fever, swollen glands, and loss of weight, weakness and other symptoms of infections.

Treatment

At the moment, there is no known cure for AIDS.  Modern science has been scrambling to find a treatment that would reverse the disease, but has not been successful so far.  There are, however, therapies and treatments that help stem or slow the progression of the disease.

HIV or AIDS treatment nowadays involves antiretroviral treatments that can help people avoid getting ill for a far longer time from when they got infected.  It is a treatment plan that has to be undergone by the patient every single day.

Antiretroviral treatments help the patient by lowering the number of the HIV in the body, making it nearly impossible to weaken the immune system.  It also helps the body recover from HIV-related damage.

At the moment, more than two drugs are required for therapy, ensuring that the body does not become resistant to treatment and make it inutile.  This makes the treatments more effective in the long run.

Lamivudine, abacavir, stavudine, didanosine and tenofovir are only some of the drugs currently approved for HIV or AIDS treatment.

With the lack of a cure, AIDS (and HIV) remained one of the most frightening diseases that currently plague the world.  Do not be a victim.  AIDS is a deadly disease that is ironically very easy to avoid.  Educate yourself and your loved ones on just what exactly the disease it, how it is transmitted and how it could be avoided.

More importantly, if you think that you have AIDS or HIV, or if you have engaged in risky behaviors, then have yourself checked.  Early diagnosis of the disease cannot only help you get treatments to help slow down the progress of the disease, but also protect the people you come in contact with.

“I used to know Argus and his loving family of a lovely wife, two daughters and a son. They lived 800km away from the city where I work .I used to see him driving his truck on weekends but when I did not see him for over 7 years I inquire from his friend Arlong. Arlong informed me that Argus had a vehicular accident and died on the spot .Her wife who was already a hypertensive was rushed to the hospital on the same day but also passed away with severe hypertension 2 weeks after. Her eldest daughter Sanya, 6 months pregnant was married to a man from the same place they came from whom Argus her father strongly resented committed suicide 7 months after. Neighbours said the couples had a fight the night before the tragedy .Hoping to hear some good news, I asked about the other children Hatal and Shakri. Arlong informed me that Hatal was working as a waiter in a pub but was laid off for he had AIDS, telling me that he would die anytime now. Shakri, the youngest daughter has a family of 2 children. However, her husband is ill and will also be laid off from work for he also is infected with AIDS. Sooner or later Shakri will have the same disease, leaving their children to be adopted and who knows who will watch over the children. However, that was not all. Arlong told me that the day Argus had the accident, he was searching for Sanya to inform her that the man she loved was infected with AIDS but failed to do so”.

People say it is a punishment from god, others say a curse from the dead, while others simply say that AIDS is death itself. Whatever the beliefs are, it is certainly something that will kill us if we don’t take preventive precautions. We should know that AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) is a disease caused by HIV. HIV is a pathological disease which is communicable; it is acquired through infected blood, contaminated instruments and prolonged contact with infected people. It attacks our immune system by rapidly entering our blood and replicating our white blood cells, which made it difficult for our immune system to recognize and destroy the virus that suppresses our immunity to infection. And since blood circulates all over the body it affects our major organs, which resulted to multiple organ failure then death.

The worst part of this is that there is still no cure for AIDS. Drugs were made to slow down the development of the virus or to slow down the damage of the organs affected but still, no remedy for such disease if infected up to this present time.

The best part is it is preventable. As stated earlier, AIDS is acquired through contact of infected things and blood, which enters our body. If we are cautious enough by being aware of the places where we can possibly be affected by the disease, positively we will not acquire the disease.

This is a global dilemma, which means the disease can easily spread and is present in all places around the world. We can never be sure that the place we live in is not affected with AIDS. For this reason, we should take initial action to prevent and stop such disease to occur. By helping together with the whole community in providing information about AIDS and how to prevent it is the most effective way to help each other stop the disease.

Worldwide; a person is infected weekly, more people are diagnosed with HIV positive monthly and death due to AIDS yearly. We know how tragic it will be to have such disease. We don’t want to experience Argus and his family went through. We have to put an end in this sad story and now is the right time to do it.