Wednesday, March 19, 2008

A.I.D.S.



What is AIDS?



Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a collection of symptoms and progressive damage done to the immune system caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) .



The immune system is formed by white blood cells, known as leukocytes that defends our body against bacteria, diseases and foreign materials we come in contact everyday. To put it in simple terms, our body is like a country whereas white blood cells are our military force which defenses the country whenever called for.



What AIDS does mainly is that it slowly or progressively damages the immune system. Eventually the immune system would be too weak to defend the body against any infection or bacteria that invades our system.



Without our defense system, our body is vulnerable to anything, even a common cold could bring death upon the victim. HIV can only be spread through blood transfusion and bodily fluid exchange. The virus is weak outside the body but strong when it's inside. To sum it up, it is difficult for the virus to spread in midair through our respiratory system.



However, there are claims where the virus wouldn't be able to spread through infected saliva of the victim. What if there are two individuals where one of them is infected with AIDS and the other is not but has sore throat, performs osculation (scientific term for kiss)? Having sore throat means that there is an open wound, wouldn't that be an opportunity for the virus to spread?





Furthermore, this virus has no cure at the moment, even in our modern society where science is very advanced, contracting AIDS would only have one outcome that is death.




Origins


HIV is most likely originated from chimpanzees in the southeastern rain forests of Cameroon. During that era, needles were the most common way of how did the virus made a jump from animals to humankind. There are plenty of other causes which includes open wounds which enabled the virus to enter the human body and also sodomization between animals and men.



In 1983, CDC (USA) warns the blood bank of the possibility of "unclean" blood supplies. However, the term AIDS was not used yet as it was not fully clarified yet. Through unscreened blood transfusion, the virus was able to freely spread from one individual to another.



There are a few claims where the CIA was responsible for AIDS. There are debates going on that the CIA sponsored a group of scientists to create the deadliest biological weapon ever known to mankind. They began testing on populations from Africa and also Haiti. They lost control of the experiment and the virus eventually infected most of the population in those countries.


Rumors include claims that the virus were also created in Hitler's laboratories and were developed by the Russians.




Cure/Treatments

There is currently no cure for AIDS. It kills like a slow poison from the day the body contracted the virus.

However, in Chicago, Thomson Financial found a potential breakthrough for AIDS. It was not a cure but instead a method to slow down the progression of AIDS. It wasn't much progression but considering this breakthrough, this might be a baby step for mankind to overcome this deadly virus.

The problem with finding a cure is that the virus has the ability to mutate so that the immune system doesn't recognize it as an enemy. The virus is able to mask itself making the immune system to think that it is not a foe.




Statistics



More than 25 million people have died from AIDS since 1981.

Africa alone has 12 million AIDS orphans.

At the end of 2007, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide, and for 61% in sub-Saharan Africa.

Young people (under 25 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide.

In developing and transitional countries, 7.1 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 2.015 million (28%) are receiving the drugs.






Referrals :
Statistics
AIDS as a biological weapon
Origins of AIDS
How AIDS spreads
Potential cure for AIDS


Feel free to leave your comments.

Sad out =(

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