AIDS - Essay Example

The infection can occur through conventional vaginal sexual intercourse or through anal, oral sexual acts. There are recorded cases of HIV infection being perpetrated through “blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids”. The spread of AIDS has now assumed pandemic proportions. When statistics were compiled last year, as many as thirty three million people worldwide were afflicted with this condition, of which close to ten percent eventually died.

The more worrying aspect is the fact that a significant portion of AIDS patients are children. The region worst hit by the AIDS pandemic is sub-Saharan Africa, where economic and cultural progress is curtailed by this perpetual emergency situation. The identification of HIV and the condition it causes, namely AIDS, was identified only in 1981. Since then, medical researchers and pharmacologists have not been able to come up with a cure for this illness (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS). One of the reasons why HIV infection is difficult to identify at an early stage is due to the fact that its symptoms are subtle and mild.

A person carrying HIV may not be aware of it for years. Since early detection is made difficult, health authorities are focusing on prevention. That is why we see widespread awareness campaigns on safe-sex practices and discretionary lifestyles. The symptoms of AIDS are not easy to identify. Since they can affect any organ in the body and can be induced by bacteria, fungi, viruses and other parasitical organisms, there is no definite set of symptoms associated with AIDS. The only concrete measure of detecting its presence in the body is by taking a blood sample tested for HIV (www.en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/AIDS). When the immune system of the patient is sufficiently weakened, he/she can be