Overview of HIV Essay

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

The term Human Immunodeficiency Virus is commonly known as (HIV), which is a virus that attacks the immune system of humans by destroying the amount of CD4 cells in their bodies. Without CD4 the human body is unable to fight against diseases, which can lead to Acquired Immune deficiency syndrome known as AIDS for short. The first case of the HIV/AIDS virus in the U.S. occurred in the early 1980’s. The first spark of the virus was found in San Francisco with couple of homosexual Caucasian American males. Today African Americans account for the largest proportion of HIV and AIDS in this country, represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population, but accounted for an estimated 44% of new HIV infections in 2010(the last year a study was

The most common vector for the virus to enter the body is through sexual transmission, either by anal, oral, or vaginal sex. The highest risk activity is anal sex, as the mucous membrane inflammation facilitates HIV transmission (McCutchan, 2013). However, other modes such as sharing needles when injecting drugs, tiny cuts or sores on a person’s vagina, mouth, or penis, or simply the birth of a child by an infected mother, can all spread the disease to other

The first documented case of HIV was in 1959. It is believed that HIV may have been spreading throughout the United States since 1966. Allegedly the spread of HIV and AIDS across the United States can be traced all the way back to an unnamed male who contracted the disease while in Haiti and brought it to the US. It did not take long for the disease to spread uncontrollably throughout the U.S, infamously throughout the homosexual community. In 1981, the initial cases of AIDS were a group of homosexual males with no recorded cases of impaired immunity who displayed symptoms of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, an uncommon infection that typically

When it was first reported, scientists were unaware of the how many people were infected with HIV and how many developed AIDS. By the mid-1980 it was suggested that more than 100,000 men would have already been infected with the virus. In 1983, females were infected with this virus, and at that time, scientists believed it come from heterosexual sex. In the same year, children were infected with this virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that casual contact could transmit that virus. However, later that year, scientists said that HIV/AIDS could only pass to someone through sex, by sharing and injection syringe, though breastfeeding, and through contact with the blood of someone infected with the virus (History of HIV/AIDS Overview).

For centuries, “AIDS has been spread through sexual contact and direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, semean, and breast milk” (Disease background). Also, is spread through perinatal transmission which is when an AIDS-infected mother gives birth and passes the virus on to her child. The virus develops rapidly in the first few months affecting the immune system and preventing the body from fighting infections. The sex trade began to grow around the same time AIDS started to spread. Many say that, “most of the first AIDS cases were recorded in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1920, and by 1980 the disease was spreading in different parts of Africa” (Origin of HIV and AIDS).

The disease AIDS is an acronym for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The first known case of the AIDS virus was found in 1970’s. The AIDS disease was made aware in hospitals among male patients who had same-sex relationships. The two main areas of this disease at that time was in New York and Los Angeles. “In 1982 the AIDS disease was enhancing Kaposi 's sarcoma and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia” (Scavnicky, 2011). In order for a person to be diagnosed with AIDS is due to having the HIV virus. The first HIV virus was detected around 1950. It was considered to have originated from monkey’s or chimps. It later had been spread to humans. The AIDS name had surfaced after the latter stages of HIV have

Most of us know about H.I.V, but not all of us fully understand all of the aspects of this disease. Not only are there physical aspects, but also physiological aspects.

It is believed that HIV originated in Africa in the chimpanzees. Humans then caught it from them. HIV “jumped species.”

HIV broken down stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The H stands for human, which means that this virus can only affect humans, the I stands for immunodeficiency and this means that HIV weakens the immune system, the V stands for virus which means that it can only reproduce itself by taking over cells within the body of an individual. HIV is similar to other viruses (like the flu) the only difference is that the body can fight the flu off but it cannot fight HIV off. “HIV can hide for long periods of time in the cells of your body and that it attacks a key part of your immune system – your T-cells or CD4 cells. Your body has to have these cells to fight infections and disease, but HIV invades them, uses them to make more copies of itself, and then destroys them.”(What is HIV/AIDS?) Once HIV enters the body it will never leave it, the only thing that an individual can do is neutralize it by keeping it from taking over all of the cells through medication. HIV then progresses to AIDS this however doesn’t mean that if a person has HIV they will get AIDS; if they treat early on they can prevent it from turning into AIDS.

This history of HIV/AIDS as a blurry timeline before the 1980’s since that was around the time reports came in which eventually become an HIV report. The origin of HIV can be traced back to the early part of the century. Some believe that in the 1920’s chimpanzees from the Congo came into contact with humans (Avert, 2016). Though reports were not identified as HIV until the 1980’s, the belief that HIV was already scattered throughout four other continents may have been incident (Avert, 2016). Even though for the past 30 years the world has been diligently working to find a cure and pushing prevention, we are still struggling each year with increasing diagnosis. The beginning of HIV did end with lots of death, but now with our improved antiviral medication there is hope for many.

Antivirals are the treatment for HIV and presently there is no known cure. Treatment most often involves combinations of different drugs to avoid creating strains of the virus that are immune to single drug treatments (Mayo Clinic, 2013). The number of CD4 or T cells monitors treatment response. The viral load should be undetectable while undergoing antiviral therapy. The count is checked when treatment starts and usually monitored every 3-6 months. Even if someone has an undetectable viral load, the spreading of HIV is still a possibility.

HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease in which the body's immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off certain infections, known as "opportunistic infections," and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system. When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are the immune cells that normally protect us from disease.

HIV, or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus which damages and kills cells of the immune system. It attacks the T-cells, key cells of the immune system, and uses them to make copies of itself. After being infected with the virus it progressively interferes and eventually destroys the immune system's ability to fight the anti-genes. HIV may develop into the syndrome AIDS, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV is an STD - a sexually transmitted disease - and therefore most commonly it is spread through sexual contact, and the virus mainly enters the body through the penis, mouth, lining of the vagina or vulva during sexual activity. HIV can also be spread through sharing syringes or needles with someone who is infected with the

The human immunodeficiency virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with someone who is infected, from a mother to her baby during pregnancy and breastfeeding or at birth, sharing of unsterilized equipment that has been used by someone who is previously infected such as needles and also transfusion of contaminated blood, semen or skin grafts.