Hiv and Aids

AIDS is the scourge of this millennium. If not controlled it can enter the next millennium and will dominate man kind. This disease is new but has become the captain of all diseases. It is also widely misunderstood with a lot of misconceptions. Hence a thorough basic knowledge about it is of paramount importance.

AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome caused by a virus known as Human Immune deficiency virus (HIV) which was first discovered in united states of America in the year 1981 among 40 homosexuals who ultimately died of pneumonia caused pneumocystitis Canii infection and slowly this disease passing through African countries has reached Asia.

The HIV virus differs from other viruses, as it is a complicated virus having capacity to change its forms with the help of an enzyme known as reverse transcriptase enzyme. HIV also produces 4 types of toxins from different parts of its body causing problems in its destruction and vaccine production against it. This virus attacks the main defensive mechanism of human beings (Immune System) and renders the human body defenseless against the infective agents.

This disease is transmitted through:

1. Sex: when one of the partners is infected.
2. Blood trans6fusion: if the blood is infected.
3. Mother to child: if the mother is infected.
4. Needles and syringes: if infected and un-sterilized.
5. And other such as barber’s knives, tattooing needles, tooth brushes etc., if they have been used on an infected person and are not sterilized before using on another person.

It is not transmitted by :
Holding hands, living together, playing sports, kissing (dry), sharing toilet seats, dancing, bathing together, sneezing and coughing or through insect bites.

Symptoms :

1. Sudden weight loss by 10%.
2. Diarrhea for more than one month.
3. Fever with sweating.
4. Continuous cough with fever and sweating.
5. Fungal infections.

GLOBAL SCENARIO :

UNAIDS, the united nations body coordinating the international response to the AIDS epidemic estimates that there are 8 million AIDS cases including 1.5 million children under the age of 15 years who have already developed AIDS since the epidemic began and nearly 6 million have died and over 9 million children under the age 15 years have lost their mothers in the world. Further it is estimated that over 22 million HIV infections have occurred since the epidemic and everyday around 8500 new infections are occurring and about 1000 occur in children under the age of 15 years.

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