"Universal Fear"

The most feared illness of our time is no longer cancer. Today, cancer can be treated. AIDS cannot; it has no cure.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a viral disease that affects humans and destroys the immune system. With the immune system down, the body’s ability to defend itself from infections and diseases is greatly weakened.

AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. A healthy person infected is unaffected, but infection to those with weak immune systems can be fatal.

The cure for AIDS has not yet been discovered. Fortunately, new drugs which can prolong the life span and improve the quality of life of infected people are now available.

Just because you’re infected with HIV does not mean that you have AIDS. Some people who are infected with HIV may not develop any of the illnesses that define the full-blown disease of AIDS for at least 10 years. The term AIDS is used by physicians for cases in which a person has reached the final, life-threatening stage of HIV infection.

It was in 1981 that AIDS was first identified among homosexual men and intravenous drug users in New York and California. Soon, AIDS epidemics grew even among heterosexual men, women, and children in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS quickly became a worldwide epidemic, affecting almost every nation.

The United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 40 million people were living with HIV infection or AIDS in 2003. The WHO estimated that 20 million people died because of AIDS between 1981 and 2002.

How does this terrible illness spread? First is by having sexual intercourse with an infected person. This is the most common mode of transmission and it includes genital, anal, and oral sex. The virus is in the infected person’s semen or vaginal fluids.

Contact with contaminated blood is also a cause. Direct contact with HIV-infected blood happens when heroin or other injected drugs are shared in hypodermic needles or syringes. Health professionals who accidentally stick themselves with needles containing HIV-infected blood or expose an open cut to such are lesser. Some cases of transmission from blood transfusions, blood components, and organ donations were also reported.

Finally, 90 percent of AIDS cases among children happen through mother-to-child transmission. This can be during child-bearing and often, during birth and breastfeeding.

Symptoms during the first weeks include symptoms like that of flu, such as fever, sore throat, headache, skin rash, tender lymph nodes, and a feeling of discomfort. Then a symptom-free period follows, which can last up to 10 years.

When the infection has reduced the number of CD4 cells to around 200 per microliter of blood, the infected individual enters a phase in which he may experience extensive weight loss and fatigue (wasting syndrome). Periodic fever, recurring diarrhea, and thrush, a fungal mouth infection, are also common. Usually, the virus is only discovered at this stage. Various illnesses, such as pneumonia, fungal infections, tuberculosis, and even cancers can then strike the victim.

While there is no medical cure yet, in the short time since the disease was first recognized, new methods to treat AIDS have appeared quickly. Health-care professionals focus on three aspects for people with HIV infection or AIDS. First is antiretroviral therapy, which uses drugs to control HIV replication. Next are medications and treatments which fight the infections and cancers that accompany HIV infection. Finally, support mechanisms which help in dealing with the emotional consequences of this disabling and potentially fatal disease are also considered significant.