AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome) was first recognized in North America in the early's 1980's. It is caused by a virus known as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). HIV infections has become a worldwide epidemic. About 33 million people are currently ith the virus.
In North America, the virus has infected nearly a million people and killed almost a half a million people to date. At the end of 2005, about 58,000 people In Canada had been infected with HIV and of these, an estimated 15,000 (27%) were unaware of their infection.
HIV is more common among certain populations at risk. Such as people who inject illicit drugs, and bisexuals and gay men. HIV infections are also increasing among women, Aboriginal peoples, and african and carribean communities.
CAuses of HIV/AIDS
The virus can be found in the blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breastmilk of infected people. HIV is also found in saliva, sweat, and tears, though not in high enough amounts to transmit the virus to another person. There are no known cases of anyone catching HIV through sneezing, shaking hands, or from toilets seats or mosquito bites.
The two most common ways to to be infected with HIV . HIV may be transmiited through unprotected heterosexual or homesexual, vaginal, anal, or oral sex. although the risk of infection is lower with oral sex. It is still important to use protection during oral sex, such as a dental dam (a piece of latex to cover the vagina during oral sex) or a condom. HIV can also be passed on thorugh perinatal infection, where mothers who have HIV are at risk of giving the disease to the baby during birth. The risk of perinatal infection is declining with new treatments. Breastfeeding by an infected mother can also transmit HIV.
Once HIV enters the bloodstream, it takes over cells vital to the immune response known as CD+ lymphocites. The virus then inserts its own genes into the cell, turning it into a miniature factory that produces more copies of the virus. Slowly, the amount of virus in the blood goes up and the number of healthy CD+ cells goes down. The destruction of CD+ cells interferes with the body's ability to fight off infections and other disease.
Sypmtom and Complications of HIV/AIDS
Sypmtoms of HIV infection appear 2 to 12 weeks after exposure. at this point the virus begins rapidly taking over immune cells in the blood. The symptoms of this phase are flu-like and include;
- Diarrhea
- fatigue or weakness
- fever
- headache
- joint pain
- night sweats
- rash
- swollen glands
- weight loss
- yeast infection (of the mouth or vagina) that last a long tine occur frequently
After the initial symptoms go away, the body's immune system tries to control the virus. The immune system can keep the virus at bay for a while, but it can't completely get rid of it. Many people will feel fine for years before their immune system weakens and they develop AIDS. Without treatment, about half of HIV-positive people develop AIDS within 10 years of infection. Some people develop AIDS within a few years of infection. A few, called long-term non-progressors , do not develop AIDS until much later. Many factors affect timeframe to develop AIDS, Including medications and the person's general health and lifesytyle.
AIDS is term applied to advanced HIV disease. AIDS is defined as having HIV and an opportunistic infection (an infection by a microorganism that ordinarily does not cause disease unless the immune system is weakened) normally associated with AIDS. these infections can be bacterial, fungal, viral, or parasitic. Examples of opportunistic infections include toxoplasmosis, pneumocystis pneumonia, cryptococcal meningitis, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), cryptosporidium, cytomegalovirus, and mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). With the use of better medications to treat HIV, The risk of opportunistic infections has dropped over the years; however , people with AIDS will usually need to take medications (such as antibiotics) to prevent opportunistic infections.
People who have AIDS are also more likely to develop cancer, especially cancers of the immune system (lymphomas). Another cancer common for people with AIDS is Kaposi's sarcoma, A type of cancer that cause bluish red nodules on the legs and that spreads to the lymph system. Women with AIDS are prone to developing cancers of the cervix. Gay men with HIV have the higher rates of infections by HPV, a virus linked to anal cancer, and precancerous HPV strains.
Childrean with AIDS tend to get common childhood infections like conjuctivitis, otitis, and tonsilitis, but they experience symptoms much worse than the infections usually causes.
excessive weight loss or "wasting syndrome" is a problem for approximately 20% of people who have infection. It is associated with an enexpected loss of 10% or more of normal body weight, plus chronic diarrhea (30 days or more) or chronic weakness with casing dementia that gets worse over time.
