AIDS and How It Spread Globally - Essay Example

AIDS and how it spread globally AIDS i.e. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has proved to be a deadly disease for the human civilization. Despite best efforts by the researchers, no credible treatment has been found for this disease during the last more than 25 years. As per the World Health Organization and UNAIDS statistics the number of people living with AIDS in 2007 is estimated at around 33 million1. What is the cause of worry is that about 2 million children below 15 years are also affected by the disease. AIDS, as its name signifies implies that the disease comes to us through infection, i.e. we acquire the disease and it starts spreading in our body when the immune system of our body becomes weak. The disease is primarily caused by the HIV virus i.e. the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It was in the year 1982 that the term was first used; while earlier indication of such type of disease was termed as 'Grid' i.e. Gay related immune deficiency (BBC, 2006). The disease started from the African region. In the year 1981 the medical fraternity started noticing that a number of patients in the African region are dying from a disease, which they believed must not have been serious enough (CBC News, 2006). The seriousness of the fatal infection became more striking when the disease soon found its way into other countries and first case of AIDS death was reported in Canada in the year 1982. The western world took notice and researches into the symptoms and nature of the infection led to its categorization as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The virus HIV, leads to gradual weakening of the immune system of the body and in such situations even everyday infections start becoming life threatening. Research and development into finding a permanent solution to cure the disease have not yet been successful. Though, the life expectancy of AIDS patients have become much more now. While earlier, the patient would have died within months of the disease, now an AIDS patient can expect to lead a normal life for 12-15 years after getting infected with the HIV. The HIV Our immune system which is supposed to work like a defense mechanism against the infections is badly damaged when the Human Immunodeficiency Virus target the immune system. This virus attacks a particular type of white blood cells called CD4+ cells. After taking full control of the cell the virus then inserts its own genes into the cell's DNA2. Subsequently, the virus starts using the DNA cell to manufacture more virus particles. The CD4+ host cells gradually starts dying and as the number of CD4+ cells become less in the human body, the immune system of the body starts weakening. The HIV is a retrovirus containing two single-strand liner RNA molecules per virion and reverse transcriptase. The structure of this virus is said to be simple than many other viruses, but it has proved to be very difficult to defeat. After infecting the body, the virus goes into human blood, sexual fluids and breast milk. Therefore, the virus is passed on to another person, if his or her fluids come in contact with any of the infected fluids. How the Disease Spreads As the HIV virus infects the blood, sexual fluids and breast milk, the disease can spread to another healthy person when; i. A healthy person starts having sexual intercourse with the infected person. In order to save the infection being passed onto to another person as a result of sexual intercourse, condoms are the best defense mechanism. Adopting such protective mechanism doesn't allow the sexual fluids to come in contact with each other. The UNAIDS report (2008) indicates that the educative and informative programs are indeed having a good impact on the youth of 15-24 years and there are reductions in risky behavior3. ii. A healthy person shares the injection needles and body piercing equipment with another infected person. In such cases, doctors advise that injection needles should be properly sterilized before being passed on to another person. Often drug addicts do not take such care and they make use of infected needles from one person to another, which leads to many cases of HIV infection amongst the drug addicts. There are reports that this method of infection has been used by some antisocial elements to pierce people in public places with AIDS infected syringes. Such sneak attackers iii. Blood transfusion from one person to another is another major reason for HIV infection. When the blood of an infected person is transfused to another healthy person, the disease is passed on to the healthy person. To avoid occurrence of such cases hospitals and blood banks try to ascertain that the blood they are taking from someone is not infected with HIV. At the same time, infected persons are advised not to donate their blood to anybody. iv. A person having an injury anywhere on the body parts is also at a risk of obtaining the HIV if he or she allows infected fluids to enter into the blood through these injuries. v. Babies born to HIV infected women are also at serious risk of getting infected with the AIDS virus. The babies can get the virus either during the pregnancy, during birth or through breastfeeding. Therefore, in order to avoid the infection of HIV, a healthy person is supposed to take some precautions while interacting with the infected person. But, at the same time, it is also advised that the AIDS patient must be allowed to lead a normal life. A number of NGOs and respective governments have been working towards educating the general people about the dangers of AIDS while at the same time, they inform the people that AIDS virus infected person must not be treated as an outcast. The human saliva, for example, is also said to contain some particles of the virus. But the virus is not strong enough to spread to another human being. Therefore, the disease does not spread though kissing. Similarly, it doesn't spread through sweat and hugging. Symptoms of the HIV Infection Though the initial symptoms have not been found to have a similarity in all the cases of HIV infection, a majority of infected persons are stated to have suffered from flu-like symptoms within the first two to four weeks of infection. The symptoms include fevers, fatigue and rashes, sore joints, headaches and swollen lymph nodes4. Gradually as the immune system starts weakening, the HIV starts becoming strong. In a healthy person, the immune system has 600-1200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood, but in an HIV infected person this numbers drops to as low as 200. After the body gets infected, the internal mechanism starts efforts to fight the virus. In the process, within a period of 6-12 weeks after infection, the body starts producing a specific type of antibody. If such antibodies are found in a person, then he is suspected to have attracted the HIV. But, it may also happen that the HIV infection cannot be confirmed as the spread of infection takes several more weeks or several more years, before clear indications of AIDS. People with HIV infection gradually become more susceptible to diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, shingles etc. because the body's resistance power becomes very low. The Fight against AIDS Though no drug has yet been discovered to prevent or treat the AIDS disease, but a number of drugs have been developed to see that an AIDS patient can live for many more years. These drugs, known as antiretroviral drugs, help in blocking the replicating of the virus and thus the loss of CD4+ cells can be minimized to such an extent that the development of full-fledged aids can be blocked for many years. four main categories of drugs used for this purpose are; Entry inhibitors, Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and Protease inhibitors. The world community is making relentless efforts to find a solution to the AIDS or at least to contain the damage being done by the disease. To this end the United Nations has set up millennium development goals, to be fulfilled by 2015, with the objective to5; Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it Led by the developed nations, governments around the world are also geared up to make this happen. The poorest nations in the Sub-Saharan African region remain the most heavily affected region by HIV. This region accounted for a total of 67 percent of all people living with HIV while 75 percent of the AIDS deaths having taken place in 2007 also happened in this region6. The number of AIDS infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia also rose to 1.5 million with almost 90 percent of such people living either in the Russian federation or Ukraine. AIDS infected people in the Asian region are about 5.0 million by the end of the year 2007. Majority of such cases were reported in the South-East Asian region where the epidemic trends are quite prevalent. The Caribbean region is reported to be living with an estimated 230,000 cases of AIDS by 2007, with approximately three quarters of them in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Latin American region accounted for about 140,000 cases of AIDS while the United States of America has reported an estimated 1.2 million such cases. References: 1. BBC (2006). 'Timeline: 25 years of HIV/Aids'. Available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5033810.stm (May 7, 2009) 2. CBC News (2006). A timeline of developments in HIV and AIDS. Available online at http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aids/timeline.html (May 7, 2009) 3. UNAIDS (2009). The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Available online at http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp (May 7, 2009) 4. UNDP (2009). Millennium Development Goals. Available online at http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml (May 7, 2009) 5. WHO (2009). WHO and HIV/AIDS. Available online at http://www.who.int/hiv/en/ (May 7, 2009) Read More