Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The illness interferes with the immune system making people with AIDS much more likely to get infections, including opportunistic infections and tumors that do not affect people with working immune systems. This susceptibility gets worse as the disease continues.
AIDS is the last stage in a progression of diseases resulting from a viral infection known as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV or AIDS virus). The diseases include a number of unusual and severe infections, cancers and debilitating illnesses, resulting in severe weight loss or wasting away, and diseases affecting the brain and central nervous system.
There is no cure for HIV infection or AIDS nor is there a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. However, new medications not only can slow the progression of the infection, but can also markedly suppress the virus, thereby restoring the body’s immune function and permitting many HIV-infected individuals to lead a normal, disease-free life.
Causes of Aids:
Important facts about the spread of AIDS include:
- AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death among people ages 25 – 44 in the United States, down from number one in 1995.
- The World Health Organization estimates that more than 25 million people worldwide have died from this infection since the start of the epidemic.
- In 2008, there were approximately 33.4 million people around the world living with HIV/AIDS, including 2.1 million children under age 15.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. The virus attacks the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to a variety of life-threatening infections and cancers.
Common bacteria, yeast, parasites, and viruses that usually do not cause serious disease in people with healthy immune systems can cause fatal illnesses in people with AIDS.
HIV has been found in saliva, tears, nervous system tissue and spinal fluid, blood, semen (including pre-seminal fluid, which is the liquid that comes out before ejaculation), vaginal fluid, and breast milk. However, only blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk have been shown to transmit infection to others.
The virus can be spread (transmitted):
- Through sexual contact — including oral, vaginal, and anal sex
- Through blood — via blood transfusions (now extremely rare in the U.S.) or needle sharing
- From mother to child — a pregnant woman can transmit the virus to her fetus through their shared blood circulation, or a nursing mother can transmit it to her baby in her breast milk
Other methods of spreading the virus are rare and include accidental needle injury, artificial insemination with infected donated semen, and organ transplantation with infected organs.
HIV infection is NOT spread by:
- Casual contact such as hugging
- Mosquitoes
- Participation in sports
- Touching items that were touched by a person infected with the virus
AIDS and blood or organ donation:
- AIDS is NOT transmitted to a person who DONATES blood or organs. People who donate organs are never in direct contact with people who receive them. Likewise, a person who donates blood is never in contact with the person receiving it. In all these procedures, sterile needles and instruments are used.
- However, HIV can be transmitted to a person RECEIVING blood or organs from an infected donor. To reduce this risk, blood banks and organ donor programs screen donors, blood, and tissues thoroughly.
People at highest risk for getting HIV include:
- Injection drug users who share needles
- Infants born to mothers with HIV who didn’t receive HIV therapy during pregnancy
- People engaging in unprotected sex, especially with people who have other high-risk behaviors, are HIV-positive, or have AIDS
- People who received blood transfusions or clotting products between 1977 and 1985 (before screening for the virus became standard practice)
- Sexual partners of those who participate in high-risk activities (such as injection drug use or anal sex)
Symptoms of Aids:
The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of infections that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. These are called opportunistic infections.
People with AIDS have had their immune system depleted by HIV and are very susceptible to these opportunistic infections. Common symptoms are fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen lymph glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss.
Note: Initial infection with HIV may produce no symptoms. Some people, however, do experience flu-like symptoms with fever, rash, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes, usually 2 weeks after contracting the virus. Some people with HIV infection remain without symptoms for years between the time they are exposed to the virus and when they develop AIDS.