AIDS is caused by HIV, which damages the immune system and allows opportunistic infections to occur. HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids, with unprotected sex and sharing unsterilized needles being common routes. AIDS was initially stigmatized as a “gay disease,” but it has had a devastating impact on sub-Saharan Africa, where heterosexual sex is the main route of transmission. Education on safe sex and drug therapies have slowed the spread of AIDS in the US, but drug therapies are expensive and unavailable in poorer countries.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a condition characterized by damage to the human immune system, allowing infections that would otherwise be controlled to run rampant. These infections, which are called opportunistic infections, would be relatively minor for someone with a strong immune system but can lead to death for people with AIDS.
This condition is caused by a virus, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The time between HIV infection and the development of AIDS can be lengthened by drug regimens, but even without treatment there is usually still a time lag of several years. This means that those who are unknowingly infected with HIV have a number of years during which they could accidentally infect others.
HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids, especially semen, blood and breast milk. Tears, saliva and sweat can contain the virus, but in such low concentrations that transmission through these fluids is virtually impossible. People are most commonly infected from unprotected sex or from sharing unsterilized needles among intravenous drug users.
When AIDS was first identified, it was found to cluster in the gay population in California and for a number of years was unfairly stigmatized as a “gay disease.” This has led to some heterosexuals and children with the condition being discriminated against, with some children being forced out of their schools.
The disease is thought to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, unlike in the United States, the main route of transmission is heterosexual sex, and AIDS has had an enormously destructive impact on a number of African countries, cutting a wave in the most productive demographic: sexually active young adults . The reluctance to speak frankly about what causes the condition has slowed the international response to this disease, but some nations are now successfully slowing the spread of AIDS through widespread advocacy of condom use.
In the United States, its spread has been slowed by education on safe sex methods and the development of treatments for HIV infected people that delay the onset of full-blown AIDS. Whereas in the early days, a person diagnosed with HIV only had a few years to live, although the disease is still fatal – you don’t “recover” from it – people generally have a longer life expectancy and a lag time longer before progressing from HIV. The concept of living with AIDS is one that the world is just starting to get used to, although drug therapies are expensive and unavailable in poorer countries.
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