AIDS Virus Essay, Research Paper

The incurable HIV virus causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, better known

as AIDS. AIDS is a deadly disease that deteriorates the immune system. There are

two groups of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), HIV-1 that occurs throughout

the world and HIV-2 that mainly occurs in Africa. The HIV virus enters the white

blood cells and takes over the reproductive system of that cell and uses the

system to reproduce itself. The white blood cell dies and the new HIV cells

infect other white blood cells and repeat the process. If you have become

infected with the AIDS disease you may not have any symptoms of the for the next

ten years. The AIDS disease makes the less serious conditions harder for your

body to control or get rid of because of the loss of many of the white blood

cells in your body. The most common causes of death for the people with AIDS are

pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma, which afflict 70% of the infected people. AIDS

is transmitted in three ways. Intimate sexual contact is the most common. While

direct contact with infected blood and transactions to babies from the infected

mother’s fetus will also cause the disease. Although some speculation, you

cannot receive the disease from air, food, water, or insects. AIDS is a life and

death issue. To have the AIDS disease is a sentence of slow but inevitable

death. There currently is no cure or vaccine for this disease. There are drugs

that have been proven effective in slowing the spread of this deadly disease. We

know enough about how the infection is transmitted to protect ourselves from it.

But too few people are hearing the AIDS message. Perhaps many simply don’t like

or want to believe what they hear, preferring to think that AIDS "can’t

happen to them." Like other communicable diseases, AIDS can strike anyone.

AIDS doesn’t just occur in certain social groups. We must all protect ourselves

from this infection and learn about it in time to take effective precautions.

Given the right measures, no one needs to get AIDS. Now is the time to take

charge against the AIDS disease. People must remember, that the most reliable

person in charge of preventing you from getting AIDS, is yourself!