HIV

AIDS - Definition of AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Video - About.com

AIDS is one of the most serious, deadly diseases in human history.
AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV destroys a type of defence cell in the body called a CD4 helper lymphocyte. These lymphocytes are part of the body´s immune system, the defence system that fights infectious diseases. But as HIV destroys these lymphocytes, people with the virus begin to get serious infections that they normally wouldn´t - they become immune deficient. The name for this condition is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)


Where did HIV come from?
Quite simply, HIV was probably a mutation of an African monkeys virus. The presence of related retroviruses in African monkeys and apesand the close relationship of HIV to a Chimpanzee Immunodeficiency virus all suggest that Central Africa may have been the site of evolution of HIV.
Some people think that there are other possible origins of HIV. One of these is the suggestion that HIV was a deliberate or accidental productof biological warfare research. That's not possible, since the technology and the basic knowledge that would have been necessary to create such a virus had not been developed in 1975, when the epidemicbegan to grow.

Acquisition of Infection
The major routes of transmission of HIV are sexual contact, parenteral exposure to blood and blood products and transmission during pregnancy.
HIV is spread when blood, semen, or vaginal fluids from an infected person enter another person's body, usually in one of the following ways:
* Sexual Contact: any type of sexual contact - anal, vagina, or oral.
* Drug addicts sharing needles.
* Tattooing and body piercing by un sterilized needles. Getting injected by un sterilized needles by quacks (especially in the underdeveloped countries.)
* Accidental needle pricks to health workers or doctors.
* Unsafe Blood or blood products.
* Born to HIV positive mother. Pregnant female can transmit the virus to the newborn during pregnancy or during delivery or when she feeds her baby breast milk.