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HIV/AIDS in General
by theshoefairy For some very odd reason, I am absolutely obsessed with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). I have often thought of what I would do if I contracted the virus and I am still unable to come up with something. The thought of it terrifies me, even though I do not put myself at risk in any way, ... but of course, no matter what steps a person may take, it can affect anyone. From quite an early age it grabbed my attention and over the years I have become more and more interested, I read what I can about it and watch whatever documentaries there are on the subject that I come across. A movie that springs to mind is Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks. It's a very touching movie which gives an insight into the problems that someone may face when they have been infected with the disease. I find the whole thing very disturbing, so much so that I am no longer able to watch it. Maybe one of the reasons that I find it so interesting is the fact that after over 20 years, there is still no cure for the disease and if I am honest, I don't think that there will ever be one. HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, making it harder for the body to fight off infections, even ones as trivial as the common cold. It also causes the infected person to develop illnesses that a healthy person would be able to fight off. After a period of time, HIV leads to AIDS. A person is diagnosed with AIDS when their body has become susceptible to a collection of infections or when their T cell count drops below a certain level. It is not known where HIV/AIDS originated but there are a few theories. Some believe that it was passed from chimpanzees that were hunted and slaughtered for food. From here, the virus could have been transmitted to humans when they were consumed or it could have been transmitted whilst the hunting took place by blood from the chimps getting into cuts and wounds of the hunter. Another theory was that it was created by scientists when they were trying to come up with a vaccine for Polio. The first known cases of AIDS appeared in the USA amongst gay men and it truly baffled doctors. Through extensive research, and after the virus had killed many many people, the doctors began to develop drugs that could treat, although not cure the virus. This was known as "The Cocktail" which severely slowed down the replication of the virus within the infected people and significantly improved their quality of life. It is said that these drugs could prolong the life of an AIDS infected person by up to 8 years. These new drugs provided a great hope for people living with the virus and HIV/AIDS was no longer seen as a death sentence. But for this hope, there was a great cost. At a cost of around £16,000 per year, the drugs were very expensive and not everyone could afford the treatment. In poorer, third world countries, AIDS and HIV infection was still a big a problem as it had been with little hope. What makes this virus so hard to cure is the fact that when the virus replicates, it constantly changes. As the virus multiplies, it is constantly making mistakes. The cells of the virus consists of a protein that the human body would recognise and attempt to fight, but what prevents this is the fact that these cells are coated with a sugar, allowing the virus to go undetected. What really annoys me about this disease is that we know what causes it, we know how it is spread and it seems to so easy to prevent, yet people are still becoming infected, people are still dying of this. When the virus was first identified, it was said that it would take just 2 years to develop a vaccine. But as I have previously stated, more than 20 years down the line, we still don't have one. Therefore, I think greater research and awareness should surround preventing this disease rather than curing it. The virus is transmitted amongst drug users where infected needles are shared. It is also transmitted sexually amongst heterosexuals and homosexuals. It can be transmitted from mother to baby during childbirth and breast feeding and of course through blood transfusions. I am what you might call pretty conservative in a lot of respects. I have the deepest sympathy for people who were infected through no fault of their own. By this I am talking about people who have been infected via blood transfusions, women who have contracted the virus as a result of being raped, and the poor children who have been infected through their mothers. But in some cases I am severely irritated by people with this virus. I am irritated by the promiscuity which plays a large part in the transmittance of this deadly virus. The sex trade, the drug trade and gay communities which all help to keep this virus well and truly alive. This virus, in my opinion has never been taken as seriously as it should have been and it is my belief that people still aren't taking it seriously today. People are still engaging in unprotected sex with strangers, people still share needles and it angers me. And now with the new drugs that are now very widely available all over the world, this will only serve to allow people to see this as a virus that can be treated. There are some who even believe that there is a cure for AIDS. It is great that a treatment is available for the people like I have said, that have been infected through no fault of their own, but what worries me about this treatment is the fact that people with AIDS and HIV who don't take it seriously are being given a prolonged life which gives them more time to infect many many more people. I just cannot see an end to this. Something drastic needs to be done. --- Update (due to a recent comment) --- I would like to post this information straight from the website where I have just this second obtained it... "U.S. statistics show, of course, that both gay men and straight men have HIV, and that both men and women are infected. But statistically speaking, how "gay" is the disease? In 2005 (the latest year for national numbers), the largest proportion of estimated new HIV/AIDS diagnoses were for men who have sex with men (MSM), followed by adults and adolescents infected through heterosexual contact. (The CDC reports its numbers as "estimated," which we will drop in this article for the sake of simplicity.) For that year, there were 28,037 new HIV diagnoses in men, and 9,893 in women. Of the males, the largest risk factor -- for 18,785 of them -- was men who have sex with men (or MSM, a term that covers this group whether they consider themselves gay or not). This means that half of all new HIV diagnoses, and two-thirds of all male diagnoses, were in MSM. This data is based on only 33 states. For a copy of the "HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 2005," visit www.cdc.gov. I would also like to add that during my review I did not soley focus on homosexuals being responsible for the spreading of AIDS and I am fully aware that it is also a very big problem amongst heterosexuals. Read the complete review |
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HIV/AIDS in General
by ihate22 ==HIV== Do you imagine your life with scariest and worst virus? Can you imagine your life with HIV? Personally, I presumably know, what I gonna go, If I get that virus. Best solution is suicide presumably. What you gonna do, if you get that virus? Everyone knows, that this virus is incurable. Your ... immunity system goes worser and worser, until evolves AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) from HIV. After that you gonna die to painful death. You can't imagine that? You don't want to get that virus? So, you have to be really careful. ==PROPAGATION CHANGES== 1) Always if you are at sexual relations, use condom! Condom is the best protector from HIV. Without condom, It's really big percent, that you get HIV (if you having a sex with people who has HIV). So always use condom, before you aren't so convinced, that your partner don't have HIV. 2) HIV propagates with sperm and with blood. So be extra careful, before you let strange people to do some tattoo for you, because on the tattoo needle, there might me some kind of blood. 3)You don't get HIV, by kissing people who has HIV virus. 4)HIV don't propagate, if you touch people with HIV virus. ==TOTAL SUMMARY== HIV is incurable, but It's possible to lengthen HIV sick life, by eating some medicines and tablets. These medicines preclude sickness propagation. But you don't want to eat medicines all the day? Then try to avoid having a sex with strangers, but if you having a sex with them, use condom, always! A lot of people have died, because of AIDS and we don't want it. © iHate22 December 8 2008 Read the complete review |
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HIV/AIDS in General
by barbie84 HIV is a disease that damages the bodys immune system no longer allowing it to fight infections and making the body weaker as a result of this. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus, when put like this it doesnt sound like anything drastic but when you know that this is a life long or limiting illness that has no cure or ... treatment for it it puts a very different slant on this disease. Over time the immune system weakens that much that infections and cancers that would have normaly been fought off by your bodys own defence mechanisms takes over, this makes the carrier very ill and is at this pint when the disease is then refered to as aids. Hiv can only be passed on by cross contamination of infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids or breast milk. For any single people out there i hope this makes you think twice about not wearing a condom in future. There is no cure for HIV but there is a treatment available to prolong the disease developing to the stage of being classified as aids, this is a treatment by drugs, usually a few different types taken together so is refered to as combination therapy and can be very successful for many years. These drugs will have to be taken for the rest of your life. Even with these drgs you are not guaranteed a life as long as most as you will build an intolerance to the drugs and have to be changed onto different combinations and eventually there will be no more cobinations to try but wholst taking these you can lead a normal life. My hubby is HIV positive which he contracted from a tattoo salon at 18 years of age and has been on a combination of drugs for the last 7 years now, his only symptoms were a flu like cold and achy limbs which seembed to linger way longer than a normal cold, luckily when he was tested his levels of hiv in his blood were very low so hadnt managed to pass the disease on to anyone without knowing about it. What angers me the most about this disease is people oppinions of it, most people believe that every HIV patient has been a needle user at some point or is gay so have a low oppinion of them, this is not always the case and this disease is not half as rare as you may think, there are over 65000 diagnosed people in the uk with HIV as i write this and god only knows how many undiagnosed people many of who didnt catch this from drug abuse. My other big bug bare with this and people attitudes is how little people understand about it, the amount of people who will avoid you if they know you have this disease as if they are going to catch it by talking to you. I get a lot of strange questions about why i am with my a man who is HIV positive, why shouldnt i be, i love him just like any one else, we may not be spending the rest of my life together but we will certainly be spendig the rest of his life together. The main question people ask me is are you not scared of catching it ? yes would be my honest answer but if we are always careful it is very very unlikely and possibly less likely than anyone else is to contract it. The other main horror people have is that we have children, they were concieved by IVF treatment using a donors sperm so baby nor me were ever compromised. People with HIV go through enough turmoil in there lives without being treated like a leopar so bear this in mind if you ever happen to meet one of the 65000 people in the uk with the disease. Read the complete review |
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7 reviews Health Problem / |
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1 review Health Problem / Terrence Higgins Trust THT is an HIV & AIDS charity in the UK that claims to be the largest in Europe. Established in 1982, it was the first charity to be set up in response to the HIV epidemic and has been involved in the fight against HIV & AIDS ever si |
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Health Problem / A UK AIDS education and medical research charity. Responsible for a wide range of education and medical research work with the overall aim of preventing people from becoming infected with HIV; improving the quality of life of those already infected and, t |
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