AIDS- The Most Dreadful Disease

AIDS-Acquired immuno deficiency syndrome is the most dreadful disease in the history of mankind,which has caused a great havoc in the minds of people and entire wordwide.AIDS victims are treated in the same way as the leprosy patients were used to be sometimes back.They  are being neglected and abandoned by their friends,relatives and family members.All this makes life of the patients miserable.

AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV(Human immuno deficiency) virus named by WHO.This virus destroys human body's immune system with the destruction of immune mechanism of body,the victim becomes prone to many bacterial infections.
 During the initial infection, a person may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. This is typically followed by a prolonged period without symptoms. As the illness progresses, it interferes more and more with the immune system, making the person much more likely to get infections.


Once HIV enters the bloodstream, it takes over cells vital to the immune response, known as CD4+ lymphocytes. 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 CD4+ cells goes down. The destruction of CD4+ cells interferes with the body's ability to fight off infections and other diseases.

Symptoms

Following symptoms may appear singly or incombination with others or may be  altogether suppressed

1.Significant loss of weight.
2.Cough with thick sputum.
3.Persistent watery diarhoea.
4.Swallen glands in armpits,groin and sides of neck.
5.Oral and Anal ulcers.
6.Persistent feeling of tiredness.
7.Reduction in the number of WBC,RBC and blood platelets.
8.Red, brown, pink or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose or eyelids.
9.White spots or unusual blemishes on the tongue, in the mouth, or in the throat.



The Emergence of AIDS

On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report describing a rare lung infection known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five homosexual men in Los Angeles. Expert review of the cases suggested that the disease likely was acquired through sexual contact and that it appeared to be associated with immune dysfunction caused by exposure to some factor that predisposed the affected individuals to opportunistic infection. The following month the CDC published a report describing an outbreak of cases of a rare cancer called Kaposi sarcoma in homosexual men in New York City and San Francisco. The report noted that in many instances the cancers were accompanied by opportunistic infections, such as P. carinii pneumonia. The infections and cancers were later determined to be manifestations of AIDS. In addition to affecting homosexual men, the disease was detected in intravenous drug users, who became infected mainly by sharing contaminated hypodermic needles.

In 1983 French and American researchers isolated the causative agent, HIV. (In 2008 French virologists Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of HIV.) By 1985 serological tests to detect the virus had been developed.

Transmission

HIV is transmitted by three main routes: sexual contact, exposure to infected body fluids or tissues, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding.It  may be transmitted by homo and hetero sexual exchangeof body fluids,when victims blood which carries virus,comes into contact with the blood of another person.Needles shared by intravenous drug addicts  needle stick injury, transfusion of contaminated blood or blood product, or medical injections with unsterilised equipment can carry the virus from one person to another.It may also spread through blood transfusion,babies can get AIDS virus from their mother during the process of deliveryitself,through mothers milk during breastfeeding.

Prevention

Sexual contact

Consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long term.When condoms are used consistently by a couple in which one person is infected, the rate of HIV infection is less than 1% per year.There is some evidence to suggest that female condoms may provide an equivalent level of protection.
Comprehensive sexual education provided at school may decrease high risk behavior.

Mother-to-child

Programs to prevent the vertical transmission of HIV (from mothers to children) can reduce rates of transmission by 92–99%.This primarily involves the use of a combination of antiviral medications during pregnancy and after birth in the infant and potentially includes bottle feeding rather than breastfeeding.If replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable, and safe, mothers should avoid breastfeeding their infants; however exclusive breastfeeding is recommended during the first months of life if this is not the case.If exclusive breastfeeding is carried out, the provision of extended antiretroviral prophylaxis to the infant decreases the risk of transmission.

Vaccination

Although no cure is yet in seight ,the fight against AIDS has proved to be one of the glorious of the modern medicine.Continous research is going on ,newer and effective drugs to kill AIDS virus are being tested,but so far no encoraging results have been obtained.

As of 2012 there is no effective vaccine for HIV or AIDS.A single trial of the vaccine RV 144 published in 2009 found a partial reduction in the risk of transmission of roughly 30%, stimulating some hope in the research community of developing a truly effective vaccine.Further trials of the RV 144 vaccine are ongoing.

But one should,never give up hope.