AIDS 101- What You Absolutely
Need to Know
By
Mansi Aggarwal
Introduction
Due both to the stigma and the awareness program attached
with it, now AIDS has become a common household term. There
are very less people who actually know that the exact word
is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS in short.
Because of the morbidity and mortality attached and also
because of the ignorance about it there are lots and lots of
myths against this deadly disease. This alone shows the
anxiety and concern of the general mass.
History
The virus for this disease is thought to have transmitted
from simian monkeys in the forests of Africa to humans and
from there it traveled to USA and different countries. It
was brewing in the bodies till in 1981 in USA the Center for
Disease Control and prevention (CDC) recognized it for the
first time and reported that there was an unexplained
occurrence of an unusual pneumonia in a few homosexuals.
Soon the disease was to be found in intravenous drug users.
But it was only in 1983 that the causative virus was
isolated from a patient and then further classified.
Obviously because of the ignorance initially the information
was confined to only certain specific institutions in the
early 1980s. Then as the disease became more prevalent and
showed its mortality pattern more and more people became
aware of this disease. Today it’s a topic of concern for
every type of doctor be it a family physician, obstetrician,
dentist, dermatologist or any other field.
HIV and AIDS
AIDS is a disease, as the name suggests, in which the
person over a period of time loses his power of immunity to
fight infections and hence he is a prey to a host of
infections which otherwise wont have occurred. The causative
organism is a virus called the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
On gaining entry into the body of a subject through another
patient’s body fluids such as blood, blood products, semen,
etc. the virus remains in the lymphatic system and gets
replicated. Then over a period of years it reduces the
body’s immune system.
Current problem
The problem is so severe that according to CDC, till 2003
the number of AIDS cases in USA are 1.2 million and the
number are still increasing and 40,000 new cases get
infected each year in whole of USA.
Diseases associated with aids
There are many different diseases associated with this
disease ranging from all types of bacterial infections to
viral infections and other protozoal and helminthic
infections.
Management
The disease is managed by a whole lot of drugs because of
the inability of the scientists to develop a vaccine against
it. The drugs against it are basically divided into two
types. One type prevents against the possible development of
the potential bacterial, viral and helminthic infections and
the other group helps in the killing and preventing
replication of HIV. The first group has drugs such as
trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole, clarithromycin, amphotericin,
fluconazole, etc. The latter group has antiviral drugs such
as zidovudine, didanosine, saquinavir, indinavir,
enfuvirtide, etc.
Prevention
Till there are no effective vaccines available prevention
is the best cost effective treatment available. Adherence to
universal precautions meaning that every body fluid from a
patient is considered to be infected from HIV until proven
otherwise should be practiced. Also there are various
institutions and organizations both governmental and
non-governmental involved in creating awareness throughout
the world.
