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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.

There have been in recent times, three important explosions: the information explosion, the population explosion and the AIDS explosion. The first is good; the second will be taken care of by Mother Nature; it is the third explosion that needs to be muffled. Fortunately, we have the arsenals do so.  

The strategies of AIDS prevention are directed against patients suffering from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), commercial sex workers (CSWs), and other high risk persons including men who have sex with men (MSM), injecting drug users (IDU), long-distance truck drivers, street children, prison inmates, and migrant workers. Precautions relating to Hospitals and Blood banks also form part of AIDS prevention.  

CSWs are periodically examined for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and treated if found positive. They are advised to insist on their clients wearing the condom. All brothels are made “condom use only” brothels. If possible the CSWs are rehabilitated by imparting them training in some craft and helped to land an honorable job.  

AIDS prevention for the benefit of high risk persons is by way of educating them about the safe sex practices and about the need for using only disposable syringes for self-administration of drugs.

All STD patients are detected as early as possible after the onset of illness and are treated. They are motivated to practice safe sex so that they do not again fall a prey to the STDs/AIDS.

A measure that helps in AIDS prevention as well as in solving the social problem of homelessness is to provide houses for the migrant laborers. For lack of proper accommodation these laborers are often forced to live in slums where the prevalence of HIV infection is high.

AIDS PREVENTION IN HOSPITALS 

Surfaces and materials in the medical institutions are disinfected with bleach solution prepared by adding 10 G of fresh bleaching powder to 250 ml of water.

Blood spills and objects contaminated with blood and body fluids are disinfected with a strong bleach solution made by adding 15 G of bleaching powder to 75 ml of water.  

Material soaked with blood/body fluids are first put into a disposal bag that is tied and then put into a second bag whose mouth is then tightly tied, and finally disposed of.  

All laboratories are well ventilated. Local exhaust ventilation is provided in the form of fume hoods.  

A plan for the control of exposure to blood/body fluids is prepared by the head of the medical institution, printed and circulated to all the staff. Among other details, this plan contains the following: The list of jobs/tasks/duties, where the concerned worker may come into contact with blood or body fluids. The procedure to be health worker should follow, if he spills blood on to his broken skin or if he accidentally pricks his skin with a contaminated needle.  

AIDS prevention and Blood Banks  

The managers of blood banks are strictly made to take the following precautions:

To collect blood form a donor only after HIV testing and verifying he/she is negative.  

It is important to dissuade persons, who have the history of multiple sex partners, from donating blood. Finally, blood transfusion has to be done, only if it is absolutely necessary.  

By following the AIDS prevention strategy as above, we may not succeed in wiping HIV out, but certainly the current number of 4.5 million new cases of AIDS can be reduced by a sizeable proportion, in the near future.  

Treatment of AIDS can be frustrating both to the patient as well as to the doctor. The patient may be frustrated because it is a life-long affair and the doctor may be frustrated because he knows the treatment of AIDS does not cure the disease. After all, he knows it does not exterminate the HIV virus but merely keeps them from reproducing.  

Treatment of aids has the following goals: 

1. To reduce the viral load to undetectable levels, i.e., less than 50 copies/milliliter, for as long as possible.
2. To increase the count, if low, and maintain it in the normal range.
3. To limit the development of resistance to medication.
4. To restore the body’s immune system by raising the level of CD4 cells and to maintain it at that level.
5. To prevent the patient acquiring opportunistic infections.
6. To reduce transmission of the disease from the patient to others.
7. To improve the quality of patient’s life and to extend its span, 

AIDS DRUGS 

Three groups of drugs are available for AIDS treatment: 

1. Reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs). These prevent the reverse transcription of the viral RNA to DNA that is necessary for viral multiplication. RTIs are of two sub-types:  

• Nucleoside RTIs (NRTIs). Some examples with their dose follow:
  • Azidothymidine (AZT), retrovir or Zidovudine (ZDV), 300 mg b.d.
  • Didanosine (ddI), 200-350 mg b.d.
  • Zalcitabine (ddC), 0.5 mg t.d.s.
  • Stavudine (d4T), bd
  • Lamirudine (3TC), 150 mg b.d.
• Non-nucleoside RTIs (NNRTIs). Examples are Nevirapine (NVP), dose, 20 mg/KG daily, and Delaviridine (DLV), dose, 400 mg t.d.s.

2. Protease Inhibitors (PIs). They inhibit protease. Normally protease fractures host’s proteins. The resultant fractions are necessary for the multiplication of HIV. The disabling of protease therefore prevents HIV replication. Examples with dose are given below:

• Saquinavir, 600 mg/day
• Indinavir, 800 mg t.d.s.
• Ritonavir, 600 mg b.d.

3. Fusion inhibitors (FIs). These drugs can be injected. They block HIV from entering the healthy cells of the body. Enfuvirtide (T-20) is a fusion inhibitor. 

Evolution Of Aids Medication Regimens 

Originally, monotherapy with ZDV was employed. This was associated with rapid development of resistance.  

Later, two drugs were employed. Following were the different two drug combinations: (a) ZDV and 3TC; (b) ZDV and ddI; (c) Saquinavir and Ritonavir; and (d) Nelfinavir and d4T. These brought about an increase in the helper CD4 cell count and prevented opportunistic infections. However, the benefits were non-persistent and the problem of drug resistance remained.  

Today, AIDS is treated with what is called ‘Highly Active AntiRetroviral Therapy’ (HAART). It is a triple cocktail therapy with two NRTIs such as ZDV and 3TC and one PI such as Indinavir. The key to the success of HAART lies in the drug combination’s ability to disrupt HIV replication at two different stages. NRTIs restrain an enzyme crucial to an early stage of HIV replication. PIs hold back another enzyme that functions near the end of the HIV replication process.  

AIDS Drugs are not without side effects. The common ones are headache, rash, itching, anemia, hepatitis, neuropathy, hyperbilirubinemia and nephrolithiasis. They promote the onset of diabetes. In a diabetic, they worsen hyperglycemia. AIDS medicines may induce enhanced bleeding in people suffering from hemophilia types A or B.  

Treatment of AIDS in the mother is done to prevent her spreading it to the fetus. This achieved by the following steps:  

1. AZT is given to the HIV infected pregnant women  at 14 to 34 weeks of pregnancy by any one of these regimens:100 mg five times a day, 200 mg three times a day, or 300 mg twice a day.
2. During labor and delivery, the mother receives intravenous AZT.
3. The baby is treated with AZT (in liquid form) every 6 hours for 6 weeks after birth.

The maxim, what cannot be successfully treated should better be prevented, is very true with AIDS. 

The Beginning of the Killer Disease – History of AIDS 

The history of AIDS, the dreadful disease, goes back to the 20^th century. The United States of America began to investigate with the help of CDC, Centre for disease control around 1931. First African Americans were secretly tested for AIDS. They also tested AIDS in sheep. During 1951, the 1^st world conference on AIDS was held and US began to investigate the cause of the epidemic disease. There were no recorded cases prior to 1957. Only during 1962 year, creation of special virus program, Operation–X was launched.  

From 1963 onwards, every year ` Special Virus Program ‘was conducted. Tests are conducted for Lymphoma, the other name for AIDS. Slim disease was spotted in African countries such as Zaire, Uganda and Tanzania in late 1970. The United States and Haiti had a similar pattern of disease as in Africa, in 1980.  

Stanford Mycoplasma Lab gave their first presentation of papers on AIDS, “Viral Infections in Man Associated with Acquired Immunological Deficiency States.” The primary scientist, Dr. Thomas Merigan was the consultant to the special virus program. The disease at that time did not have a name. Therefore, different groups referred to it in different ways. The CDC generally, referred to it by symptoms like lymphadenopathy which has swollen glands. Also, called as GRID i.e., gay-related immune deficiency, AIDS i.e., acquired immunodeficiency disease. This is the history of AIDS.  

Causes and Spread of AIDS 

From 1980 – 1982, South California researchers inferred that the disease could have been caused by a sexually transmitted infectious agent i.e., homosexuals, heterosexuals, blood transfusions or vertical transmission from mother to child and exposure to unsterilized needles.  

Approximately, 452 cases registered from 23 states were diagnosed a disease due to sexual transmission, by the centre for disease control. Only during 1982, CDC first properly defined as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). HIV and AIDS had also been detected in other parts of the globe, among sex workers causing fears that the disease would curb the entire globe under its iron claws.  

First Death Causes Realization of AIDS 

In 1981, a child about one and a half year old, who had received multiple transfusions of blood and blood products died from infections related to AIDS. This case provided clearer evidence that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent, and created awareness about the safety of the blood supply. Also, the CDC reported the first cases of possible mother to child transmission of AIDS.  

By the end of 1982, many more people were taking notice of this new disease, as it was clearer that a much wider group of people was going to be affected.

It was also becoming clear that AIDS was not a disease that just occurred in the USA. There were separate reports of the disease occurring in a number of European countries also have AIDS epidemic.  

In Asia, UK, West Germany and Denmark, the majority of people with AIDS were homosexual. Many had a history of sex with American nationals. However, experts are skeptical that AIDS will spread as rapidly among heterosexuals, as it has among homosexuals.  

Today, this killer disease has spread beyond boundaries and every country is finding new ways to educate people about AIDS and prevent it.

What Is AIDS? 

AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a final stage of fatal, infectious, immunological disorder, which is caused by a rapidly transmuting retrovirus, human immunodeficiency virus known as HIV. It is a condition identified by illness that shows a reduced immune response in a healthy person. The infection may not cause disease for a longer period of time; however, gradually, it weakens the immune system of the body making it susceptible to infections. The human immune system is fatally depressed by the disease. 

How It Spreads? 

The virus is contagious through some body fluids and is mainly passed on through sexual behavior and administering drugs within the vein. The risk of getting infected is greater when the virus enters through anus, broken skin, vagina, penis, ulcers, especially the ones, due to sexually transmitted diseases, shared needles and traumatic wound and during the time of childbirth.  

Early Symptoms 

After three to six weeks after the virus is contacted, one can feel the symptoms like flu-like illness with fever, headache, tiredness, diarrhea, nausea, engorged lymph node etc which is called acute HIV syndrome. AIDS symptoms include lack of energy, rapid loss of weight, frequent fever and sweat, thick coating of tongue and mouth, headaches or lightheadedness or dizziness during the periods in addition to fatigue, easy bruising of the skin, long lasting diarrhea, deep dry coughing, shortness of breath, etc. 

HIV or AIDS- How to Find Out the Stages? 

The signs of AIDS include low number of CD4 cells also called T4 cells, which may get down as low as below 200. The normal value of a healthy uninfected individual ranges between 500 and 1500. There will be frequent of severe vaginal infections, formation of frequent skin rashes etc. Based upon the number of T4 cells and the occurrence of some conditions and infections, it can be diagnosed whether the HIV infestation has advanced to AIDS.  

There are three conditions after the invasion of the virus. They are asymptomatic, symptomatic and AIDS, in which the CD4 cell count is > 500/mm³, 200 to 499/mm³ and <200/mm³ respectively. In the initial asymptomatic stage, the symptoms are not prominent. The symptoms of HIV will begin to show up in symptomatic stage. One or more infections and conditions indicative of HIV infection advanced to AIDS can be found in the extreme condition, where CD4 cell count is less than 200. Cancers like Kaposi’s sarcoma, lymphoma, cervical cancer etc are indicative of development of AIDS. The common opportunistic infections are fungal infections like yeast infections, bacterial infections like tuberculosis, viral infections like herpes simplex and parasitic infections like toxoplasmosis. 

HIV Symptoms 

HIV symptoms are the ones that occur before the advanced stage of AIDS. The opportunistic infections that are related to HIV symptoms include symptoms of depression, swollen lymph nodes, disorders of Gastro intestinal tracts, diseases of respiratory system, skin and mucous membrane infections, skin rashes, neurological and emotional disturbances etc. The only way to find out the infestation of HIV is testing for HIV infection and it is better not to rely only on the symptoms, since they may not appear even after infestation.

AIDS - Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, describes the collection of symptoms and infections that commonly complicate the state of a unique acquired immunodeficiency. The virus affects the cells of the human immune system and impairs their function. It progressively disables part of the immune system. So the immune system no longer fights certain infections and diseases and kills the individual. The immunodeficient people are vulnerable to a wide range of infections.  

Relationship between HIV and AIDS  

HIV and AIDS are two different stages. An individual when he or she acquires the HIV virus from some source, and the virus starts to replicate in the individual, the individual is infected. He appears and functions as any other healthy individual. At this stage also, he can be transmitting infection unknowingly. But after a variable number of years the infection overwhelms and makes the individual immunodeficient. He becomes sick. This late stage of the disease is called AIDS. When suffering from HIV AIDS, the individual has a number of infections that usually do not affect a healthy person. The infected person loses weight and usually loses the battle of life soon after, mostly due to the numerous infections.   

After the initial infection with the AIDS causing virus, immediately no symptoms develop and the patient is as normal as any other individual. So the infected people and others are not and cannot be aware that they are infected. When the infection gains an upper hand, some people have fever, rashes, joint pain and enlarged lymph nodes. A HIV infected person in the later stages is highly infectious through his bodily fluids. They can transmit the virus to another person.  

Carriers of HIV virus 

The important AIDS information is HIV is found in high concentration in bodily fluids like, blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk. It is transmitted through infected blood transfusion, sex with an infected individual, using needles contaminated with the virus and infected mothers can transmit the virus to the newborn or transmit the virus through breast feeding. HIV virus cannot be transmitted by touching, talking, kissing, sharing toilets, or through fomites like clothes, towels, bedding, etc.   

Indiscriminate sexual relationships must be avoided. Reckless sexual activities should be strongly discouraged in the strongest possible way and the knowledge disseminated widely among high risk behavior groups. When blood transfusion is absolutely indicated, safe screened blood from a reputed blood bank should be chosen. Reusing needles must be discouraged. All antenatal mothers must be screened and proper antenatal care stressed and instituted.  

When indicated, disposable needles or needles that are properly sterilized only should be used. For body piercing and tattooing, the instruments used for penetrating the skin, should be disposable or properly sterilized according to the issued guidelines, before reusing. Sharing razor with an infected person is highly risky, unless sterilized.  

Cure for AIDS 

The origin of the HIV virus is still under scrutiny. The HIV infection was first described in the year 1981. It is now widely rampant in countries where poor hygiene prevails and where transmission is easy and the knowledge of the disease is low.  

There is no cure for HIV infection. No vaccine is available. But there are drugs to reduce viral replication and to treat the infections that the individuals suffer in the advanced stages.  

The Internet and world of books is filled with a lot of information about AIDS. If you have a doubt, just log on to the top search engines. You can find all that you want to know, by typing the words AIDS info.