_{FINAL PROJECT}

                         _AIDS/HIV 

    Many people die every day in all the world for differents reasons, one of the reasons and maybe the most common is AIDS (adquired immune deficiency syndrome). It was reported in the United States of America in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide  epidemic. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV destroys the body's ability to figth infections and certain cancers. Individuals diagnosed to AIDS are suceptible to threatening life diseases called oprtunistic infections wich are caused for microbes that usually don't cause illness in healthy people.  More than 500,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States of America  and  as many 900,000 Americans maybe infected with HIV.  Today this virus has a process that can be or not yet be avoid because now this virus has diagnosis, treatment and if you discover the symptoms early you can also prevent it.
 
 
 

AIDS

The terms AIDS applies to the most advanced atges of HIV infection. opportunistic  infections common in people with AIDS  cause such symptoms as  coughing, shortness of breath, seizures, dementia, severe and persistent diahrrea, fever, vision loss, severe headaches, wasting, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting, lack of coordination, coma, abdominal cramps, or difficult or painful swallowing.
People with AIDS are particulary prone to developing various cancers , and many people are so debilitated by the symptoms of AIDS that they are unable to hold steady employment or do household chores. Other people with AIDS may experience phases of intense life-threatening illness followed by phases of normal functioning.
A small number of people initially infected with HIV 10 or more years ago have not developed symptoms of AIDS. Scientist are trying to determine what factors may account for their lack of progression to AIDS, such as particular characteristics of their immu systems or whether they were infected with a less agressive strain of the virus or if their genetic make-up  may protect them from the effcets of HIV.
 
 
 

RUVIRUS

TRANSMISSION

    HIV transmission is commonly by sexual contact with someone that is infected with the virus. The virus can enter to the body through the vagina, ppenis, rectum or mouth during sex, but HIV can be spread through contact with infected blood. HIV was transmited through transfussions of contamined blood or blood components, but today the risk of acquiring HIV from such transfussion from patients to health care worker or viceversa for accidental in the medical instruments, but this case is very rare. HIV in the saliva doesn't have evidence that the virus is spread by contact with saliva.
 

EARLY SYMPTOMS  

    Many people do not develop any symptoms when the first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have a flu-like illnes within a month or two after exposure to the virus. They may have ever, headache, malaise and enlarged lymph nodes (organs of the immune system easily felt in the neck and groin). This symptoms usually desappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection.
More persistent or severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, and within two years in children born with HIV infection. This period  is variable. Some people mey begin to have symptoms in as soon as a few months, others may be symptom -free for more than 10 years. During this this period, HIV is actively infecting and killing cells of the immune system.
As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications begins to surface. One of the first such symptoms experienced by many people infected with HIV is lymph nodes that remain  enlarged for more than three months.  Other symptoms often experienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include a lack of energy, weight loss, frequent fever and sweats, persistent or frequent yeast infection (oral or vaginal), persistent skin rashes or flaky skin, pelvic inflammatory disease that does not respond to treatment or short-term memory loss. Some people also develope frequent and severe herpes infections that cause mouth, geintal or anal sores, or painful nerve disease known as shingles. Children may have delayed development or failure to thrive.
 

    Because early HIV infection often causes no symptoms , it is primarily detected by testing a person's blood for the presence of antibodies (diseases-fighting proteins) to HIV. HIV antibodies generally do not reach detectable levels until one to three months following infection and may take as long as six months to be generated in quantities large enough to show up in standard blood test.
People exposed to HIV should be tested for HIV infection as soon as they are likely to develop antibodies to the virus. Such early testing will enable them to receive appropiate treatment at a time when they are most able to combat  HIV and prevent the emergence of certain opportunistic infections. Early testing also alerts HIV-infected people to avoid high-risk behaviors that colud be spread HIV to others.
Two differents types of antibody tests, ELISA and Western Blot, are used to diagnose HIV infection.  If a person is higthly
 likely to be infected with HIV and yet both tests are negative, a doctor may test for the presence of HIV itself in the blood. The person also may be told to repeat antibody testing at a later date, when antibodies to HIV are more likely to have developed.
 
 

 

When AIDS first surfaced in the United States, no drugs were available to combat the underlying immune deficiency and few treatments existed for the opportunistic diseases that resulted. Over the past 10 years, however, therapies have been developed to fight both HIV infection and its associated infections and cancers.
The food and drug Administration has approved a number of drugs for the treatment of HIV infection. The first group of drugs used to trat HIV infection, called reserve transcriptase (rt) inhibitors, interrupt an early stage of virus replication. Included in this class of drugs are AZT
( also known as zidovudine), ddc(zalcitabine), ddi(dideoxinosine), d4t(stavudine), and 3tc(lamivudine). These drugs may slow the spread of HIV in the body and delay the onset of opportunistic infections. Importantly, they do not prevent transmission of HIV to other individuals.
Another kind of drugs has been approved for treating HIV infection. This drugs, called protease inhibitors, interrupt virus replication at a later step in its life cycle.  They include ritonavir,saquinivir, indinavir, and nelfinavir, because the HIV can become resistant to both classes of drugs, combination treatment using both is necessary to effectively suppress the virus.
 

 

PREVENTION

    Since no vaccine for HIV is available, the only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid behaviors that put a person at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex.
Because many people infected with HIV have no symptoms, there is no way of knowing with certainty wether a sexual parther is infected unless he or she has been repeatedly tested for the vorus or has not engaged in any risky behavior. The people can protect themselves by using latex condoms whenever having oral, anal or vaginal sex with someone they aren't certain is free of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases. Only condoms made of latex should be used, and water-based lubricants should be used with latex condoms.
The risk of HIV transmission from a pregnant woman to her fetus is significantly reduced if she takes AZT during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and her baby takes it for the first six weeks of life.
 

CONCLUSION

    Abundant  of research  on HIV infection, including the development and testing of HIV vaccines and new therapies for the disease and some of its associated conditions.  More than a dozen HIV vaccines are being tested in people, and many drugs for HIV infection or AIDS associated opportunistics infections are either in development immune system. It mind that  the researches suggesting new and more effective targets for drugs and vaccines.