AIDS Essay Research Paper recognized disease entity

AIDS Essay, Research Paper

recognized disease entity. Aids is on the minds of many people all around the world.

There are many myths about how one can contract or come in contact with this deadly

disease. Many people are afraid to give blood, go to the doctor, or even drink from a

public water fountain because of these myths. After one is finished reading about what

Aids actually is, how one can prevent it, how one can contract it, some of the symptoms,

and also some of the treatments for this deadly disease he or she will understand this

disease much better.

Most people don’t understand the definition of Aids. The U.S. Center For Disease

Control has established criteria for defining cases of Aids that are based on diseases, and a

range of other conditions. “The opportunistic diseases are generally the most prominent

and life threaten clinical manifestation of Aids.” It is now recognized, however, that

neuropsychiatric manifestations of HIV infection of the brain are also common. “Other

complications of HIV infection include fever, diarrhea, severe weight loss, and swollen

lymph nodes.” When HIV-infected persons experience some of the above symptoms but

do not meet full criteria for Aids, they are given the diagnosis of Aids-related complex, or

ARC(Fettner17-19). The growing felling is that a symptomatic HIV infection and ARC

should not be viewed as distinct entities but, rather as stages of an irreversible progression

towards Aids(Davis12).

There are many different ways a person can prevent the contraction of Aids, from

abstinence, contraceptives, and even clean needles. Most people ignore these items and

end up getting Aids. Less encouraging signs are that sexually active teens do not use

condoms, even in San Francisco, a high risk area. Researchers at The University of

California who surveyed two hundred and four sexually active adolescents found that only

about eight percent of the boys and two percent of the girls used condoms during every

act of intercourse(Davis12). “If you’re not sure about your health status or your partner’s,

use latex condoms diligently.” If you want to go the extra step, choose condoms with a

lubricant containing nonoxynol-9, which provides a chemical barrier against sexually

transmitted diseases. If you practice oral sex, use a condom on a man or a latex shield on

a woman. Psychologist Susan Kageles says, “Interviews with one thousand eight hundred

people found that condom use was considered immoral by forty percent of Hispanic men,

thirty percent of Hispanic women, thirty-four percent of black men, twenty-eight percent

of black women, eight percent of white men, and three percent of white women”(SF

Examiner A1+).

Researchers have isolated HIV from a number of body fluids including, blood,

semen, saliva, tears, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, breast milk, and certain cervical and

vaginal secretions. Strong evidence indicates, however, that HIV is transmitted only

through three primary routes: sexual intercourse, whether vaginal or anal, with an infected

individual: nondigestive exposure to infected blood or blood products, and from an

infected mother to her child before or during birth. “At least ninety seven percent of U. S.

Aids cases have been transmitted through one of these routes with transmission between

homosexual men accounting for about sixty percent of the cases. Heterosexual

transmissions in the United States accounting for only about five percent of cases but is a

significant mode of transmission in Africa and Asia.” About twenty-one percent of Aids

cases occur in intravenous drug abusers exposed to HIV- infected blood through shared

needles. Current practices of screening blood donors testing all donated blood and plasma

for HIV antibodies have reduced the number of cumulative cases due to transfusion to

about one percent. The number of new cases of Aids in women of reproductive age is

increasing at an alarming rate. “Aids has become the leading cause of death for women

between the ages of twenty and forty in the major cities of North and South America,

Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.” In the United States, Aids has hit the hardest

among black and Hispanic women. These women represent seventeen percent of the

female population but make up seventy-three percent of women with Aids. Aids is also

having a devastating impact on infant mortality, since over eighty percent of the HIV-

infected children under the age of thirteen acquired HIV from their infected mothers.

Between twenty-four and thirty-three percent of children born to infected mothers will

develop the disease. No scientific evidence supports transmission of Aids through

ordinary nonsexual conduct. Careful studies demonstrate that despite prolonged

household contact with individuals, family members have not become infected-except

through the routes described above. Health care workers have been infected with HIV

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