More Information and stats!
One of the other major reasons HIV is such a terrifying virus is because of what it leads into. As time goes on, someone with HIV generally will get sicker more often because of the decreased immune system. Once that person has a very serious illness that takes a while to get over, or once the B4 cells have dropped below a certain level, that person is said to have AIDS( Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Generally if the person has not had any type of drug treatment it takes on average about ten years before AIDS develops.
Treatments:
There is no known cure to HIV/AIDS. There is a certain class of drugs called antiretroviral drugs that has suppressed HIV quite a bit. Antiretroviral drugs slow the HIV reproduction process. Typically antiretroviral drugs are helpful because they improve the quality of life for HIV patients. It is important to remember, however, that this is a treatment NOT A CURE.
Symptoms:
Symptoms of HIV infection are wide spread, because the immune system is lowered all over the body. Many HIV patients express symptoms of:
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Yeast infections
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Muscle stiffness
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Fatigue
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Sore throat
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Candidiasis (see below for picture of Candidiasis)
Prevention:
The only way to prevent HIV is to limit the harmful situations you put yourself into. You can get HIV from an infected needle, from a mother to a child or from sexual contact.
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To limit sexual contact chances: Wear a condom or practice abstinence!
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To limit infected needle chances: If you must use intravenous drugs, make sure its sterile. But of course, the best way is not to use them at all!
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To limit mother to child chances: Use safe delivery practices and/or use retroviral drugs.
Prevalence:
HIV has been a major problem for many areas of the world, especially in Africa. In fact, 69% of the current people who have HIV are in sub Saharan Africa. Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died from AIDS.
As of 2007, the number of people who had HIV/AIDS was 33.2 million. - That is an alarmingly high number considering that as of 1990 (only 17 years before this data) there were 8 million people who had HIV/AIDS.
In 2007, the number of people who got infected with HIV was 2.5 million.- It is estimated that one in four people who have HIV have not gotten there infection diagnosed.1
In 2007, 2.1 million people died from AIDS.- Of that 2.1 million, 330,000 of them were children!