African's Against Aids

AIDS: Education is the Solution

AIDS or the acquired immune deficiency virus is considered to be one of the top issues around the globe. This condition contributed a lot of health problems not only to those who already had it but also the health care team. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. Today there are now plenty of individual affected because of different viral transport. The reason for the vast occurrence of this condition is the lack of education. A person involved into different risk because they do not know how deadly and sever this condition is. To help reduce the amount of AIDS victims let’s start with you. Read along this topic and you will learn different things about AIDS. This information can be an instrument to help people be aware of this deadly condition. You can share it to your family, friends, and to other individuals.

What is AIDS? It is a condition that involves your immune system. According to studies, it is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus which attacks the system that is responsible for protecting us from different diseases. For you to understand how it works let's go deeper into the cellular level. In your body, you have a cell that is commonly called as the T-cell (cell mediated immunity). Within this T-cell, we have the CD4. This CD4 plays a vital role on our immune system. Without this CD4, our immune system will become weak. The human immunodeficiency virus that causes the AIDS is first seen within our blood stream after exposure from another person who has it. Within our blood stream, it starts to invade into our immune system by destructing the CD4. Some said that AIDS is the only condition that kills the victim. That is not totally true. A death of a person who has AIDS is caused by the complications of the disease that entered the body due to the low immune status. What is so bad with this condition is that it duplicates within our body causing a bigger destruction to our immune system.

In young individuals the human immunodeficiency virus has an average incubation period of about sixteen to seventeen months. The signs and symptoms of children who have AIDS is the same like what adults have except for those manifestations relevant to sexually transmitted diseases. Children with this condition will have a higher chance of having secondary diseases. These include Otitis Media, sepsis, and chronic salivary gland enlargement. Severe complications brought by AIDS to children include mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex function, severe pneumonia, lymphoid interstitial pneumonia, and pneumocystis carinii. The occurrence of AIDS in a child is brought by a mother who has AIDS. It is during the pregnancy period where the mother passes her blood to the baby. Remember that the transfer of this condition is possible through blood contact.

What are the minor signs of AIDS?

1. Continuous cough for about a month

2. Generalized skin inflammation

3. On and off manifestations of herpes zoster

4. Enlarged lymph nodes

These minor signs can be an early manifestation of an individual having AIDS.

What are the major signs of AIDS?

1. Weight loss

2. Prolonged occurrence of diarrhea

3. Chronic fever (may last for one month)

What are the modes of transmission of AIDS/HIV?

1. Sexual intercourse. This is considered to be the most common transmission of HIV.

2. Blood transfusion. This happens because of an act of negligence coming from the health care providers.

3. Perinatal transmission. This is through an exposure of an infected blood from the mother to the baby.

What are the diagnostic procedures for AIDS/HIV?

1. ELISA or the enzyme link immunosorbent assay. This is a test done to help confirm the condition.

2. Western blot analysis, this is the most important part of the diagnostic procedure. This is considered to be the one that confirms the presence of HIV.

3 HIV anti-body tests. This antibody is specific to HIV only. This is the one that is released by our body after the entrance of the HIV.

How to prevent this condition?

1. Health education. This is what you get after reading this article.

2. Maintain universal precautions. This is what health care workers should do.

3. Know your partner

What’s the treatment?

There is no total treatment to remove the virus out of our body. What we can do is to only limit its duplication through the use of a reverse transcriptase inhibitor.

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