Discovered in the early 1980′s, AIDS & HIV were given top priority with regard to finding a cure for it.  It is now over twenty-five years later and the scientists are no closer to a cure than they were on day one.  Billions of dollars have been used for AIDS research and it seems to be money wasted.  In recent years AIDS has fallen by the wayside and is not mentioned much anymore. This is very sad because, by now AIDS is a disease is one that everyone should be familiar with.
More attention needs to be paid on keeping people informed of this disease.  If scientists aren’t able to cure it, they should work on a way to prevent it, but to date there is no vaccine to prevent AIDS.  AIDS treatments here in America are basically the same round of ‘cocktails’ they’ve always been giving for it.

During the course of my research I learned that over in India they are having success in treating AIDS using antiretroviral agents.  They speculate that an AIDS vaccine may be developed from these antiretroviral agents within the next decade. Hopefully the scientist here in America will stumble on a breakthrough as well.  A vaccine and a cure are long overdue.

At present there is no vaccines or no cures for AIDS, only treatments.  In many cases these treatments keep patients going for many years.  It is my hope that American scientists can glean some knowledge from this and find the answers.

One of the aids facts that scientists believed are that AIDS causing HIV may have evolved from a same kind of virus in monkeys that was spread to humans. Lack of specific knowledge about AIDS is also one of the causes for the spread of AIDS. Creating awareness among the young generation is a very important and the first step to be taken to control AIDS.  

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is a condition that indicates the advanced state of HIV infection. HIV is a virus that is transmitted from person to person through exchange of body fluids. The virus causes significant loss of white blood cells, due to which the immune system of the individual is damaged.  

AIDS facts are not very clear to the mass, since people generally think being HIV positive means AIDS infected.  

Some myths about Aids facts:

Aids can also be transmitted by hugging, kissing, touching, coughing, sneezing, sharing utensils, clothes, toilet seats, telephones, through mosquito bites etc, which are nothing but misleading notions that have to be ignored. 

The different stages of the disease:

In the first stage, the primary HIV infection occurs and it lasts for few weeks. The symptoms will be flu like fever. The second stage is also called as the latent period and this may last for a few years during which, no specific symptom will be present. The third stage is the symptomatic HIV infection. During this stage, the body becomes more susceptible to opportunistic infections and cancers. The fourth stage is the AIDS. The patient becomes more and more susceptible to opportunistic infections. These are the AIDS facts.  

The signs and symptoms of AIDS:

• As the immune system starts getting weak, signs and symptoms of AIDS develop.
• The person suffers from fever that exists, longer than one month.
• The person may suffer from continuous diarrhea more than a month.
• The person may be affected by repeated infections, and severe fatigue.
• There may be a weight loss greater than 10% of previous body weight.  

Modes of transmission- some aids facts:

• Aids can be transmitted by any kind of unsafe sexual intercourse.
• It can be transmitted by the usage of IV drug.
• Aids can also be transmitted from an infected mother to a baby.
• Again, any blood transfusion or exposure to infected fluid can also transmit aids.
• Using infected equipment, such as needles or syringes, can also transmit aids.  

Prevention of AIDS – Few AIDS facts:

• Have clear idea about HIV and AIDS facts – truth and myths.
• Clarify doubts and fears about AIDS.
• Simple way of prevention is practicing abstinence.
• Resist peer pressure to engage in sexual activities or drugs.
• Sterilize any instruments that pierce the skin, such as needles and syringes.
• Test the blood being used before transfusion and get a HIV free certificate before transfusion.

 The ultimate goal to know the Aids facts is to eradicate the virus, improve the treatment and to prevent the transmission. The greatest challenge is to take care of the affected patients, as people even abandon their children, if they are aware that their children have AIDS. The patients do not need clinics, doctors or pills but love, care and a positive thinking about life, which can be easily provided by every normal individual.

Prevention is better than cure applies to AIDS much more than to any other mass disease. Unfortunately the most effective preventive effective, namely, vaccine is not yet available for preventing AIDS. Fortunately, we have an alternative weapon to annihilate the HIV. Yes! It’s education on the same. 

‘Catch them young’ should be the mantra for deciding the priority target for AIDS education. Accordingly the high school and college students should be the ones to be made aware of how to avoid AIDS and encouraged to follow the preventive advice to the letter. Next to the students long distance truckers and industrial workers should be exposed to health education. Commercial sex worker and health professionals dealing with AIDS patients also need to be educated 

Content of Aids Education 

The first topic to be covered in the course of education is how AIDS spreads and how it doses not spread.  It spreads through sexual intercourse, through transfusion of contaminated blood and blood products, through infected needles, through contact with spilled blood of infected persons and finally through mother to her fetus. It does not spread through kissing, shaking hands or body contacts with an infected person, by sharing his clothes or by inhaling the droplets of his nasopharyngeal secretions. 

The next important topic of aids education is safe sex practices. These are abstinence; faithful monogamous sex with an HIV-negative partner who too is similarly faithful; use of a condom with a spermicide, God forbid, in case of extra-marital sex; and non-penetrative sex, the so-called ‘outercourse’, such as mutual masturbation.  

Next point of discussion is about syringes and needles. Patients, who need drugs that are injected, should use either disposable syringes and needles, or those that have been autoclaved. The motto should be ‘one syringe, one needle and one patient’. 

Commercial sex workers are educated to insist on their clients wearing condoms. 

Aids Education for health professionals: 

The health care workers who come into contact with HIV patients’ blood or body fluids like vaginal secretion, amniotic fluid, peritoneal fluid, pleural fluid, or cerebrospinal fluid are advised to take what are known as universal precautions.  

      a) They are educated to wash their hands with soap and water after handling blood/body fluids, after giving first aid, after removing gloves, or after cleaning objects and surfaces contaminated with blood or body fluids.

      b) They are advised not to mouth pipettes, nor to manipulate, bend, break or re-sheath needles.

      c) They should wear personal protective equipment like latex gloves, aprons, and goggles, glasses with side shields, masks, and shoe covers.

      d) They should dispose off the needles only into a wide mouthed plastic bottle or ‘sharps container.’  When the bottle is full, they should dispose it off through incineration.

 e) They are advised to rinse the syringe with water, soak it with needles, lancets, etc., in a disinfectant (3% glutaraldehyde, 4% formalin, 2% chloramine, 6% hydrogen peroxide, or 10% hypochlorite solution); then wash and steam sterilize or boil for 20 minutes. Finally, they rinse the syringe with the disinfectant once and with water twice.

      f) If a needle prick occurs, they should make it bleed and wash it well with soap and water. 

The bottom line is it is easy to give a piece of advice than following it.