The scourge of HIV/AIDS

A scourge that daily spreads and no longer has limits ... Or does it has;

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What is HIV?

HIV means Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

All of us, at some point in our lives, definitely had some illness from the flu virus. But this situation kept for some days and our body was fighting the virus. But some viruses never leave our bodies. One of these is HIV, which belongs to the retrovirus category.

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Essentially this virus has RNA. But to be integrated into the human body, it needs the help of an enzyme. The characteristic of HIV is the rapid reproduction and the complexity of the mutation.

Infection

When someone is infected with HIV, it is called seropositive. The disease spreads rapidly and infects the white blood cells of the body (the defense of our organism).

How HIV virus infects our body
Credits - Source

What is AIDS?

As already mentioned, HIV causes inefficiency in the defense of our body. However, it does not mean that if we get infected with the disease, we will all be sick. We are seropositive and we will have this virus in our body forever.

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However, if the white blood cells of the body are under 200ml in the blood, then we say that this person has AIDS.

The abbreviation AIDS means Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

On average, 50% of people infected with HIV will develop AIDS in the next 10 years if they are not receiving treatment.

Transmission

The main causes of the spread of the virus are:

• Sexual contact (without condom)
• Contact with infected blood
• From mother to child during pregnancy

More causes of HIV transmission - Source

How to protect ourselves

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• The most likely cause is sexual contact without a condom not knowing that our partner is infected. The use of the condom is essential for our safety as well as for the other partner because we may already have been infected without knowing it.

• If you are a healthcare professional, always wear gloves at the time of your work! You can't know if the person who at that time want to help or exam is infected or not. If you have wound in your skin may be to be infected if they come into contact with the blood of another.

• The infection can be even by syringes. The transmission can be done either in a hospital or drug users.

• When a woman is infected and knows she is pregnant, it is now possible with the right medicines to stop the transferring of the virus to her child.

Level of infection in the world

From 1920 until the end of 2016, 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of HIV!

Prevalence of HIV - Source

Conclusion

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Finally, can this scourge stop? My answer is YES, it can stop with our personal protection, it can stop with prevention and examination, it can stop with the clarity of the people. It is not a shame, it is a duty to update e.g. your sex-partner, your doctor etc. It is now in your hands to put a red line.

Content sources

hivaids.gr
wikipedia.org
who.int
aidsinfo.nih.gov

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