Aids Virus example essay topic

Imagine what it would be like to contract a virus that causes the immune system to fail and slowly kill. Try to think what it would be like to have to live each day knowing this disease, which has no cure, is slowly and painfully taking over. It's almost impossible to imagine, but for millions of people in the United States that is the reality they are forced to live with everyday for the rest of their lives. Anyone who has had unprotected sex, a blood transfusion, or has used I.V. drugs is at risk of contracting this disease. A large percentage of people who have been infected with this were not educated enough about the virus and its seriousness. The rapid spreading of the virus is also related to youth's sexual behavior.

Even though this deadly virus does exist, there are still ways to prevent it from being spread. This deadly disease is called Acquired Immunodificiency Syndrome, also know as AIDS. This terrible disease has effected millions of people's lives in America during the Twentieth century. The AIDS epidemic has become a huge problem within the United States. AIDS was believed to have originated in monkeys and chimpanzees in Africa, and then they were transported to the United States. Now there are almost 4.5 million people in the U.S. that are infected with the AIDS virus, and since the 1970's there has been 19.5 million people who have been infected with HIV (Moore 13).

For persons between the ages of 15 and 24 in the United States, AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death (Moore 13). Between the years 1990 and 1992, the number of teenagers infected with the HIV virus increased by 70 percent (Moore 13-14). Doctors have still not found a cure for AIDS, but they are coming up with treatments and medications to help slow down the virus's effects. One thing that has had a lot to do with the spread of the virus is that a person can not tell if another person is infected with AIDS just by looking at them.

Most people think that a person with AIDS would show signs of the illness, but there are none. AIDS has changed the way people live and think in the twentieth century for many reasons. At first AIDS was found only in homosexual men and was called GRID, which stands for gay-related immune deficiency, in 1981 (Nevid 2). Some people thought the AIDS epidemic was God's Plaque on homosexuals (Nevid 15). In the United States, between 1988 and 1989, the amount of women with AIDS had increased by 29 percent, which was very frightening to most women (Nevid 21). Before 1996, if a person was infected with AIDS they were considered to be dead.

Most AIDS patients, 85-90 percent, die within three years of contracting the virus (Check 15). In 1996, it was estimated that 21.8 million people will contract the virus that causes AIDS by the turn of the century, but now it has doubled to 44 million people, and could rise as high as 70 million (Check 16). AIDS is an infectious disease that there is no cure for yet. Even though better antibiotics are being discovered, none of them have been strong enough to defeat the AIDS virus.

Although, researchers have discovered that certain combinations of drugs could keep you alive longer by suppression the virus (Check 15). "Sometimes I find myself thinking about children or grandchildren. Or sometimes I find myself looking at all these old pictures of grandparents and other relatives and thinking that I'll have silver in my hair, too. Sometimes I really think this is the day the doctors will call me about the new wonder drug that's been discovered in France or Germany", (Nevid 2). There are several factors that can put a person at high risk of contracting AIDS.

Intravenous drug users are at a high risk of contracting the AIDS virus, especially if they are sharing needles. Almost 20 percent of AIDS patients were discovered to be IV drug users. In larger cities, like New York or Los Angeles, one-third to one-half of AIDS patients used IV drugs (Check 35). Women can be infected with AIDS by having unprotected sex with men who are infected with AIDS.

Also, babies that are born to women contracted with the virus are at high risk of getting AIDS (Check 36). People can contract AIDS through blood transfusions. Any person who went under surgery with a replacement blood transfusion was at risk of contracting AIDS (Check 40). The risk of contracting AIDS through a blood transfusion is much less than it used to be since doctors started testing the blood. Another way AIDS was brought to the United States was from the Haitian immigrants who were a defined group of AIDS victims.

They began showing up in hospitals in 1980 with the AIDS virus (Check 41). When a person contracts the HIV virus they usually do not develop AIDS for ten years after they contracted the HIV infection (Nevid 18). This is a huge reason why more people have contracted AIDS, because they are not aware they are infected so they may not think before doing something to infect another person. "AIDS has not only caused upheaval in the medical world and in the lives of its victims; it has also precipitated conflict and change in almost every aspect of American life, both public and private", (Check 73). AIDS is spreading more rapidly than ever because of youths's sexual behavior. AIDS is being spread to teenagers because they are starting to have sex at a younger age than ever, and they are less educated about the different methods of protection.

Most teenagers when asked if they would ask their partner if they had been tested for AIDS said they would not ask because it would be embarrassing (Moore 33). "No, I don't think it's necessary. I would fish for it like asking about previous relationships. But I wouldn't want to put her on the spot like that", (Moore 33). Between the ages of 16 to 24, men and women admit to having more than one sexual partner at the same time. This makes the risk of contracting HIV much greater (Moore 23-24).

Most youth's don't prefer to use condoms and if they do it's inconsistently or not at all, which increases their risk of AIDS because condoms are one of the best methods to prevent STDs (Moore 27). Most teenagers have a limited understanding about how the AIDS virus is contracted and how serious it really is. Teenagers are unaware that the HIV virus can be transmitted through vaginal fluids, and most do not understand the difference between disease prevention and contraceptives, meaning that they think oral contraceptives also protect from AIDS (Moore 36). Teenagers also might be fooled by thinking that if a person looks healthy then they can't possibly be carrying a deadly virus, but that is not true. The AIDS virus effects a person's body in many ways but the symptoms of the disease make it hard to detect. When the HIV virus is contracted it attacks the white blood cells in the body which disables the immune system.

Once the virus has taken over the immune system the body is unable to fight off diseases like the common cold and other non-serious or deadly diseases (Roleff 12). Shortly after the infection of the HIV virus a person may experience flu-like symptoms (Nevid 26). AIDS-related complex, also called ARC, is a stage of AIDS that causes weight loss, frequent fevers, sweating during the night, feeling fatigued, and untreatable diarrhea (Check 31). Another symptom of AIDS is lymphadenopathy syndrome, also know as LAS, which causes the lymph nodes to swell for three months or longer. Swollen lymph nodes are a sign that the body is fighting off an infection (Check 31). Most AIDS patients are sick for up to one year before they start showing signs of AIDS.

These illnesses that the immune system cannot fight off are what is called AIDS (Roleff 12). People who are infected with AIDS do not die from the disease itself but from the diseases AIDS allows to take over the body (Nevid 18). There are several ways people could try to control and prevent the spread of AIDS. Mandatory or routine testing would help to save lives, and no longer would public health policy represent a retreat from common decency and sense.

"Once treatment for the HIV-infected was available in the late 1980's, anonymous testing by the CDC should have been abandoned immediately, and all those infected identified", said Dr. Arthur J. Am mann, director of research at the Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Novato, California (Roleff 47). Making HIV testing mandatory and public would prevent people from involving themselves in risky business with an infected person, which in the long run, would slow the spread of the virus. One thing that has helped to prevent the spread of AIDS is giving HIV-infected mothers Zidovudine. This drug is now standard because it lessens the amount of HIV in the mother's blood stream, which reduces the baby's exposure to blood-borne viruses during delivery. "Times have changed, the odds have improved, but your child could still be born with HIV and never live a normal life. And to say that the odds of an infected baby are 1 percent or 3 percent doesn't mean the baby would have a 1- or 3-percent infection: It's all or nothing", (Massad 2).

Only eight percent of babies born through an infected mother contracted HIV when the mother was treated with the anti-drug Zidovudine during late pregnancy and labor (Massad 2). By cesarean section the baby is only in contact with the mother's infected blood for a brief time, which makes the risk of HIV-transmission less, but the risk for the mother goes up for getting an infection, bleeding, and anesthetic complications (Massad 2). AIDS is a terrible disease that has no cure, and at the moment, is spreading at an incredible rate. "HIV / AIDS is a new major life-threatening disease. It has caused a resurgence of concern about traditional sexually transmitted diseases and their high rates among young people, a concern that had, to some extent, been swept under the carpet in the pre-AIDS era", (Moore 1). This disease has an effect on every person in the entire world, which may differ for people depending on their lifestyles and choices they make in life.

There are many different ways to contract the deadly virus that so many people are unaware of, especially teenagers who are uneducated about the disease. The virus has a way of sneaking into a person's body without them knowing it and slowly killing. There are ways people can help to prevent the spread of this disease and to prevent themselves from being the next victim. Acquired Immunodificiency Syndrome, also know as AIDS is a terrible disease has effected millions of people's lives in America during the Twentieth century.

Bibliography

Check, Williams A. The Encyclopedia of Health AIDS. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988 Massad, Stewart.
Brave, Braver, Bravest. (Drug therapy gives hope to HIV-infected patients who want to have children)". [Online] Available web November, 1999 Moore, Susan;
Rosenthal, Doreen; Mitchell, Anne. Youth, AIDS, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. New York: Routledge, 1996 Nevid, Jeffrey S.
201 Things You Should Know About AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon, 1993 Roleff, Tamara L;
Comic, Charles P. AIDS: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Green haven Press, 1998.