Two-thirds of the world’s 40 million HIV/AIDS cases are in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa, which also has 12 million children orphaned by the disease. In the United States, the toll is heaviest on African-American women. Rich countries and private donors are now spending billions to fight AIDS in developing countries. While AIDS first came to public attention in the United States, it was stopped from becoming a generalized epidemic, though it remains a pressing problem in some communities.
AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is caused by a virus called HIV-human immunodeficiency virus. This virus weakens the body’s natural ability to fight various lethal infections and cancers. People with AIDS are prone to so-called opportunistic infections caused by certain bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi which normally would not be a threat to healthy people. AIDS also affects the central nervous system and can cause gradual mental deterioration and progressive paralysis.
Women appear to develop symptoms of AIDS at lower relative blood levels of HIV, and also become sicker more quickly than males with equivalent viral loads. Poverty and child care responsibilities, often keep women from seeking early diagnosis and treatment, contributing to a more rapid progression of symptoms. In the early stages of infection either sex may sometimes experience a brief illness consisting of aches or pains, fever and swollen glands.
Other signs of infection in either men or omen can include swelling of the lymph nodes, severe diarrhea, breathing difficulties, joint swelling, night sweats, weakness, fatigue, lack of coordination, muscle pain, rapid weight loss, unexplained fever, and persistent dry cough. In addition, women may have abnormal Pap tests or recurrent yeast infections. People in the late stages of AIDS are susceptible to diseases that are not usually found among people who do not have compromised immune systems.
Men with AIDS are prone to Kaposi’s sarcoma (a form of cancer) and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, which are relatively rare among people who do not have AIDS. In the final stage of AIDS, both men and women tend to develop a herpes infection that can cause blindness, pneumonia, colitis, and esophagitis, as well as various brain or lung infections caused by several different microorganisms, including a form of tuberculosis bacterium that is normally found in chickens and pigs.
A person is said to have AIDS when she has developed one or more life-threatening opportunistic infections, invasive cervical cancer, severe ulcerative genital lesions from herpes simplex, or a CD4 count less than 200. CD4 cells are a type of white blood cell central to the body’s immune system, and over time, levels of these cells tend to drop in people with AIDS. A CD4 count of less than 200 markedly increases the risk of developing life-threatening opportunistic infections. There is still no treatment that can eradicate HIV or fully eliminate the symptoms of AIDS.
Newer drug combinations used over the past several years, however, do appear to slow the progression of AIDS, control infections, and in some cases, bring HIV down to undetectable levels-at least temporarily. Nevertheless, because even the best treatments can be complicated, costly, and physically taxing-and because the HIV seems to develop resistance to them over time-no existing treatment can be considered a surefire or permanent way to eradicate HIV or eliminate the symptoms of AIDS.
New treatment, including HIV vaccines, continue to be tested and developed to treat HIV/AIDS itself as well as AIDS-related infections. People who think they may be positive for HIV should consult a physician, and those who are thinking about becoming pregnant should receive preconception counseling. People, who know they are infected, or suspect it, should inform their sexual partners and health care providers so that proper cautions can be taken, and they should not donate blood or blood products.
Reference: Langone, John. (1929). AIDS: The Facts. 272pgs.