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AIDS in the Geriatric Community Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is a recently recognized disease. It is caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS is a complicated illness that may involve several phases. It is caused by a virus that can be passed from person to person. AIDS impairs the human body's immune system -- the system is responsible for warding off disease -- and leaves the victim susceptible to various infections. AIDS was first conclusively identified in the United States in 1981, when 189 cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control.
Within a decade the disease had spread to virtually all populated areas of the world. In the United States alone there are about 65, 000 new cases every year. The origin of the AIDS virus is uncertain, but it may have originated in Central Africa. The first AIDS patients in the Americas and Europe were almost exclusively male homosexuals. Later patients included those who used unsterilized intravenous needles to inject drugs; hemophiliacs (persons with a blood-clotting disorder) and others who had received blood transfusions; females whose male sexual partners had AIDS; and the children of parents with AIDS.
However since 1989, heterosexual sex was found to be the fastest growing means of transmission of the virus, with 90 percent of the new cases coming from heterosexual sex. How AIDS Is Spread AIDS is transmitted by direct contact of the bloodstream with body fluids that contains the AIDS virus, particularly blood and semen from an HIV-infected person. The virus is usually transmitted through various forms of sexual intercourse, the transfusion of virus-contaminated blood, or sharing in HIV-contaminated intravenous needles. The AIDS virus cannot enter intact bodily surfaces, such as skin, and quickly perishes outside the human body. AIDS is not spread by casual physical contact or by sneezing.
The virus has been found in tears and saliva, but it is there in such low amounts that transmission from these body fluids is extremely rare. There are no known cases of AIDS transmission by insects or by domestic animals. Studies show that the virus is usually passed to an infant close to or during delivery. Recently infected mothers can transmit the virus to their kids through breast milk. Detection and Treatment Following infection with HIV, an individual may show no symptoms at all or may develop small illnesses. The period between initial infection and the development of AIDS is currently varying between six months and eleven years.
Usually, when the AIDS virus enters the bloodstream. the body's immune system produces antibodies to fight the microorganisms. Blood tests can detect these antibodies and therefore can show exposure to the virus. However, these tests sometimes give wrong readings and only begin giving correct information within two weeks to three months after infection. Scientists do not know exactly how the AIDS virus damages the immune system, they also do not understand why the natural antibodies developed to destroy the virus are not effective. By 1987 the drug azidothymidine (AZT) had proved effective in slowing the reproduction of the HIV virus in humans, but it is highly toxic and cannot be taken by many patients.
In 1989 researchers determined that lower doses of AZT would be effective and less harmful for patients that have early symptoms of AIDS and for kids with AIDS. Dideoyinsine (DDI) was approved in the United States in 1991 for the treatment if HIV infection. This drug is a useful replacement for AZT and is used in kids and other patients for who AZT is too toxic. In 1992 zalcitabine, or DDC, became the third approved drug to treat people infected with the AIDS virus. It was, however, approved for use only in combination with AZT to treat adults with advanced HIV infection. Several other drugs and treatments have been approved to treat P.
carinii pneumonia, Kaposi's sarcoma, and other AIDS- related conditions. Several vaccines against AIDS are being developed and tested. Efforts at Prevention Since there is no cure for AIDS education and risk reduction remain the most powerful tool in the fight against AIDS. Because there is only a few ways of transmitting AIDS, the further spread of AIDS could virtually be stopped by avoiding behaviors that put a person at risk.
Education can help to achieve this. There are several ways to reduce the spread of AIDS through sexual contact. These include practicing abstinence -- no sex -- or practicing safe sex. Practicing safe sex means by having sex with one person in which both people are free of HIV, or using a latex condoms whenever engaging in sex.
In March 1983 the major U. S. blood-banking organizations started procedures to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission by asking people at increased risk of AIDS to stop donating blood. They expanded screening procedures so that people with a history if risky behavior or with symptoms of AIDS could not give blood.
Infection Most people recently infected look and feel healthy. In some people the virus may remain inactive, and these people are carriers, they seem healthy but are still able to infect others. After a few years, some people may develop AIDS-related complex, or ARC. Its symptoms include fever, fatigue, weight loss, skin rashes, a fungal infection in the mouth known as thrush, lack of resistance to infections, and swollen lymph nodes. Sometimes the symptoms disappear, but the illness usually goes on to become AIDS.
Though it may take as much as twenty years for the virus to become AIDS, the average time is one to two years. The AIDS virus causes so much damage to the immune system that the body usually becomes more able to get a variety of infections. Infections that are harmless to people with normal immune systems but that can be lethal to those people with the AIDS virus. The average life prospect for an AIDS victim from the time that symptoms begin to show is one to five years.
Public awareness of this disease gradually built up as more respected victims began to die: actor Rock Hudson (1985), clothes designer Perry Ellis (1986), choreographer Michael Bennett (1987), photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1989), and Oscar-winning director Tony Richardson (1991). When basketball superstar Magic Johnson announced in 1991 that he had gotten the AIDS virus, the feeling spread quick that anyone, not just selected groups of people, could be at risk. The only way of stopping this disease is by education. Everyone most protect themselves and their partners, when having sex, if they do not want to get HIV.
Also remember nothing can make sex 100 % safe. The only way to keep yourself completely safe from AIDS and other STDs in by not having sex. For most of th 20 yar's sinc th start of th AIDS picnic, popl 50 and ovr hav account for a study 10 print of all nw AIDS cass diagnosed annually. But a fw yar's ago, that rat been an ominous climb -- to 11. 6 print in 1997, 12. 7 print in 1998 and 13. 4 print in 1999, according to th U. S.
Cntrs for Disas Control and Prvntion (CDC). Th fast-rising rout of transmission in this ag group is nothing x otic lik not us -- it's htrosxual sx. A 1996 CDC breakdown -- th most rent available -- of AIDS cass in individuals 50 or or show cass transmitted htrosxually increase 94 print in mn and 106 print in women btwn 1991 and 1996. Will th number of cass remains relatively small -- 1, 400 htrosxual AIDS cass diagnosed nationally among thos 50 and or in 1996, up from 700 in 1991 -- xpress say thos number don't the th whol story. Bcaus senior ar lss like than othr's to gt test for HIV, many observers ar world that th problem may b large than th number suggest -- and still growing. Concerns, two federal agencies hav launch an initiative to study th problem; two Florida county ar conducting public ducation programs and two mor ar planning to join thm; and a group call th National Association of HIV Ovr Fifty (NAHOF) aids questions on its Wb sit and giv's does of presentations ach yar.
Th growth of HIV among senior is also forcing public health officials to rethink attitude about th larry. On of th first idas to go is th wishful notion that senior ar not at risk for HIV bcaus th only thing thy do in bd is slp. Senior -- mir abil dictu -- ar having sx and many it don't know th more rul's of sexual ngagmnt or don't think th rul's apply to thm. Th last tim many of thm date, thr was no human immunodeficiency virus, no AIDS. Dating senior ar of windows or divorce at days in on relationship.
With many mn newly abl, thanks to Viagra, and the full partners wll past worrying about pregnancy, many forgo condoms. According to a 1994 study published in th Archiv's of Internal Mdicin, on of very fw don on this population, about 10 print of American ovr 50 hav at last on HIV risk factor -- such as sx with multiple partners -- and most of thos 10 print don't consistently us condoms during sx. If many senior hiv HIV is only a young person's disa's, it's not surprising. Thy'v sn th public warnings to drug usr's, gay mn, prostitute, tns, Hispanics and blacks about HIV risks. But thr's nvr bn a national ducation campaign thing senior -- particularly htrosxual senior -- thy'r at risk. So, lik Constantin, many figure thy arn't.
Worrying that continue ignorance or complacency could sell trouble for th senior community, public health officials ar beginning to target mor resources for public awards and nw studi's of senior and AIDS. But som critics wonder if th response is a cas of too little and very lat. HIV among senior "is a ral concern... and thr's reason to think it could bcom mor of a problem, " says Hln Gay, director of th CDC's National Cntr for HIV, STD and TB Prvntion. "Thr is a nd to mak sur popl ar mor away of th is.
I definitely think mor can b don to gt information to this population. " It's a fact: Bcaus most at-risk senior -- including thos with multiple sx partners, thos who hav had a blood transfusion btwn 1979 and 1985, and any whos part has a known behavioral risk -- don't think thy ar hazarding infection, most don't gt test for HIV. Th 1994 Archiv's of Internal Mdicin study found this hld tru for 90 print of at-risk senior -- making thm on-fifth as like...
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Research essay sample on Human Immunodeficiency Virus Spread Of Aids
