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AIDS/HIV Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, better
known as AIDS, is caused by the incurable HIV virus. AIDS is a deadly
disease that deteriorates the immune system. There are two groups of
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), HIV-1 that occurs throughout the
world and HIV-2 that mainly occurs in Africa. The HIV virus enters the
white blood cells and takes over the reproductive system of that cell and
uses the system to reproduce itself. The white blood cell dies and the
new HIV cells infect other white blood cells and repeat the process. The
Person with the disease will eventually die because the white blood cell
dies off tottally. AIDS VIRUS If you
have become infected with the AIDS disease you may not have any
symptoms of the disease for the next ten years. People with the HIV
virus usually look and feel healthy and may not even know that they are
infected. Even though they don't look or feel sick, they can still infect
others. When the symptoms do start to happen they can be like the
ones of many common sicknesses such as swollen glands, coughing,
fever, and diarrhea. It is usually characterized by severe weight loss and
fatigue. The AIDS disease makes the less serious conditions harder
for your body to control or get rid of because of the loss of many of the
white blood cells in your body. The most common causes of death for the
people with AIDS are pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma. Kaposi's
sarcoma which shows up as purple lesions on the skin and tumors known
as B-cell lymphomas have affected 70% of the infected people. AIDS
is transmitted in three main ways. Intimate sexual contact such as having
vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who is infected with HIV is the
most common. While direct contact with infected blood, like sharing
needles for injecting drugs, HIV also can be passed from an infected
mother to her baby during pregancy or childbirth. Although some people
speculate, you cannot receive the disease from kissing on the cheek and
it is very unlikely that you could get HIV even from open mouth kissing,
you also cannot get the disease/virus from close hugging, touching,

cuddling, and massages as long as there isn't any open cuts or
abrassions. HIV also cannot be contracted from using toilet
seats,telephones, drinking fountains, straws, spoons, or cups or
mosquitoes, air, food, water, coughs/sneezes, sweat or tears. AIDS
is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is a sentence of slow
but defininate death. There currently is no cure or vaccine for this disease
but there are drugs that have been proven effective in slowing the spread
of this deadly disease like AZT the first chemical shown to be partially
effective in reducing clinical symptoms and controlling viral replication
was developed in 1986-87. Scientists say that a safe, effective vaccine
against HIV may be at least a decade or more away, mainly because HIV
changes structure quickly, producing different types. A lot of types of the
AIDS virus have been isolated, and it looks like the disease is contunually
changing in its genetic looks and so, its closes up against what a
person's immune system can make antibodies. We know enough about
how the infection is transmitted to protect ourselves from it. But too few
people are hearing the AIDS message. Maybe many just don't like or
want to believe what they hear, preferring to think that AIDS "can't
happen to them." Like other communicable diseases, AIDS can strike
anyone. AIDS doesn't just occur in certain social groups of people. We
all have to protect ourselves from this infection and learn about it in time
to take good enough precautions. Taking the right actions, no one needs
to get AIDS. Now is the time to take charge against the AIDS disease by
using good precautions such as using condoms made of latex rubber.
People have to remember, that the most reliable person in charge of
preventing you from getting AIDS, is yourself! In 1990, the World Health
Organization brought to attention that 203,599 cases of AIDS were
reported worldwide by the end of 1989, and estimated the actual number
of cases to have been 600,000. Viral Structure -