AIDS is a disease that damages the immune system and interferes with a person’s ability to fight off disease. It is most commonly transmitted sexually, but can also be transmitted through infected blood exposure and through birth. Mayoclinic. com says “AIDS is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition” AIDS is caused by the retrovirus HIV, HIV targets T-cells which are vital immune system cells and without them it is nearly impossible to fight a common cold let alone a life threatening disease. AIDS can affect your body in many other ways then just destroying your immune system.
Women are mostly affected with other serious issues caused by the killer virus. It can affect women’s menstrual cycle, fertility, menopause, and also cause reproduction issues. It also causes osteoporosis in both males and females. Most irregular period cases are because of a mixture between HIV and a low CD4 count, being the T-cells, but HIV causes a loss of CD4 cells so it isn’t uncommon. Also regular users of recreational drugs will more than likely experience unusual menstrual cycles if they are infected with HIV simultaneously.
This side effect of AIDS can cause unusual spans of time between periods and cause to miss periods without pregnancy. HIV also affects menopause and fertility by slowing down or stopping production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. This can cause inability to become pregnant and cause early menopause. Both of these disastrous effects of HIV can be helped with HRT which is hormone replacement therapy. This can help aid your T-cells to fight things like early menopause and irregular periods.
Reproduction issues are very serious conditions including symptoms of lower stomach pain, vaginal discharge, sex cramps, internal pain, fever, vomiting, exhaustion, and unusual vaginal bleeding. Doctors recommend a regular cervical check up because if reproduction issues are caught early they can be treated very well. Osteoporosis is common in women who have been through menopause, but HIV can cause it to males and females. Osteoporosis is weakening of a person’s bones due to loss of bone density. According to aidsmap. com “People with HIV tend to have lower… bone density.
It’s not entirely clear why this is” Scientists believe it is directly caused by HIV and treatments. Healthy diet, exercise, and calcium vitamins can lower the loss of bone density. AIDS does not only target someone’s immune system, it can affect many other things as well. Unfortunately there is no cure for HIV. Once you get it you have it for the rest of your life, but AIDS is not always fatal like people make it out to be. Yes, a majority of the people die from it before they would’ve without it, but some people’s HIV doesn’t kill them. Death by AIDS is a very invariable topic.
Doctors and scientists can’t exactly find out why some die in a year and some live for twenty years. If a person with HIV didn’t die of any other cause they would eventually die of AIDS though. Hivinsite. ucsf. edu tells about treatments for HIV “HIV treatment does not cure HIV… outlook for people with HIV has improved tremendously… A person diagnosed at age 25 who receives good medical care is estimated to live 40 more years. ” They are working very diligently on a cure or vaccine for AIDS but unfortunately there isn’t one yet. Statistics show in 2012 around 1.
3 million people have been diagnosed with AIDS within the United States. According to Unaids. org “Number of people living with HIV Total 35. 3 million” Statistics show that there are about 3. 3 million children 15 years and younger diagnosed worldwide with AIDS. They say around 1. 6 million people die a year because of this retrovirus. The extreme number of deaths is where it picked up the name The HIV Epidemic. There are many unheard of things that go along with HIV. AIDS is most common in Africans Americans/ blacks. Homosexuals are also commonly infected with HIV.
Cdc. gov states “Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly young black/African Americans MSM, are most seriously affected by HIV. ” Another thing that is a well known rumor but is actually backed by science is the idea of the disease coming from primates. Strands of HIV-1 and HIV-2 are both linked back to primates. Also AIDS is a much scarier disease than many others because of its ability to infect you and kill you before you knew you had it. Speaking of scary things about AIDS, people have been found trying to use it as a warfare tactic.
There is a mutation found in Scandinavians called CCR5-delta 32 that creates a strong resistance to AIDS. The earliest recorded case of AIDS was in 1959 found in humans in Congo. Those are just some unique and maybe unknown facts about AIDS/HIV. AIDS is a very serious disease. Scientists have prioritized finding a cure right up there by cancer. Although it is not always fatal it does produce many deaths, and in some cases it just downright tortures people. This epidemic is very diverse but hopefully scientists soon break it down and find a general vaccine.