AIDS Awareness
What is HIV/AIDS?
AIDS stand for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Acquired refers to any condition that is not present at birth. Immune deficiency means that the body’s immune system which fight s off illness, is not working efficiently. Syndrome referred to a group of specific infection which occurs because the body immune system has been compromised.This immune deficiency is a late consequence of infection by a human immune deficiency virus (HIV).
HIV attacks the white blood cell (T -helper cell or CD (Lymphocyte) cells in the nervous system. After attack the helper cells, its genetic material becomes incorporated into the host cells. At this stage, the virus may persist in the human cells in dormant state. Once the dormant infected T-helper cells become activated, the viral genetic material is triggered to make more copies of the genetic material and proteins. As a result, thousand of new HIV’s are produced within each infected cell.
The newly produced HIV upon release can in turn infect other healthy T-helper cells. Thus HIV causes the T-helper cells to decrese the in number and cease functioning effectively. Since these cells are important components of the body’s immune system, the result is a progressive loss of immunological functions. AIDS represent the late stage of the HIV infection, which is characterized by occurrence of opportunistic infection and tumors. Owing to the integration of HIV into the human, genome it is very difficult to eradicate HIV from the body. HIV also alters its genetic structure at a rapid rate. These properties increase the difficulty of developing an effective vaccine against HIV.
In all viral diseases there is delay between catching virus and diseases. This delay is called incubation period .In case of AIDS , the incubation periods varies from six months to six to 10 years or some time even more.
In early stage of infection in most people-cells contain HIV .The body’s immune system remain relatively intact and the person carrying the virus looks and feel healthy.
HIV may be found in the body fluids as blood ,semen’s, viginal fluids, breast milk, salvia ,tears ,urine ,sweat and sputum .Body fluids which have been linked to the transmission of HIV include blood, semen, viginal secretion, breast milk ,saliva, tears and urine, sweat and sputum only harbor an insignificant amount of HIV and are not important for transmission.
Transmission Modes are through four major areas;
Sexual contacts
Blood transfusion
Sharing of needle or syringes
Mother to infant
Splashes of infected blood into the cut or sores, and other unhygienic condition like dirty operations tools, needle used for ocopuntur if not clean, women making cut for ring and other beautification ,barber dirty shave equipments and circumcisions etc are other mode of transmission.
One can’t get HIV from the patient with sharing clothing, bed, glass, cooking and eating utensil, mosquito bite, and bed insect, shaking hands, sneezing or coughing.
If a person is found HIV+ he should not be isolated from his family and community .He should be allowed to do his routine job. He should be cared and supported especially in period of stress and illness as normal patient. Be friendly and supportive. Family members should not take it as only sex diseases, it can be by another reason as mentioned above. Proper counseling and reference to HIV/AIDS physician can prolong the life to some extent.
At the end of 2002, an estimated 42 million people around the world were living with HIV/AIDS. During the same year, five million new infections were reported, while the epidemic claimed and estimated 3.1 million lives. One third of the people living with HIV/AIDS are between 15 and 24 years old. Injecting drug abuse is among the major forces driving the epidemic, attributing to around five per cent of HIV transmission. UNODC, a cosponsor of UNAIDS since 1999, has been mainstreaming HIV/AIDS prevention into its demand reduction activities globally, with an emphasis on promoting skills development and helping young people live a healthy, drug-free life. UNODC also supports prevention activities to limit the spread of HIV/AIDS among injecting drug abusers, and through them, to their spouses, children and the general population
Research on Pakistani and Afghan drug users at high HIV risk found that only 16 per cent of those surveyed had heard of HIV/AIDS.33 The situation is especially alarming because drug abusers are also less likely to know that sharing needles or having unprotected sex could spread sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) and other infectious diseases. Although only 6.3 per cent of the respondents had reported drug injection, 43 per cent had shared injecting equipment, on average with four to six users at one time.
By the summer of 2004, only a 45-year-old father and his two children, two years and six months old, had died of HIV/AIDS in one of Kabul’s hospitals, becoming the first recorded victims of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan. These three were among 24 although it is estimated that 200–300 Afghans are affected by the virus, the real number is probably far higher, and because many Afghans with HIV or AIDS avoid talking about it publicly.34 Lack of information about HIV/AIDS in a traditionally conservative society where most people are illiterate could potentially lead to an epidemic.
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