AIDS
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome AIDS is the acronym for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. ... AIDS is an infection caused by a virus, the HIV virus (human immunodeficiency virus). ... There is a difference between having AIDS and testing positive for the HIV virus. A person is considered to have AIDS when certain infections attack and become life threatening. AIDS is considered the most advanced stage of the HIV infection (Belliner 5). ... In fact, loss of these cells in people with HIV is an extremely powerful predictor of the development of AIDS. ... When these infections strike simultaneously and the CD4+ T-cell counts fall to about or below 200, a person is considered to have full blown AIDS (Bellenir). ... The secretions are exchanged during intercourse, when sharing needles, during birth when the mother is infected, through breast-feeding from an infected mother, and blood transfusions (AIDS). ... By 1982, scientists and health officials began to call the occurrences of opportunistic infections (infections that opportunely attack weakened immune systems), Pneumocystis carinii (a rare type of pneumonia), and Kaposi’s sarcoma (a cancer of the blood vessels) which manifests itself on the skin with purple lesions, “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome” or AIDS (Marieb 818). Back in 1982, the diagnosis of AIDS was practically considered a death sentence because once the opportunistic infections and the cancers hit all at once, death was certain. At present, AIDS is still an incurable disease, but that is not to say that advances have not been made since 1982. ... HIV infection in the 21st century is more likely to occur among heterosexuals (AIDS). ... While no cure is yet available, there are drugs that have been developed that slow down the progression of the virus’s destruction of the immune system (AIDS). ... New drugs such as integrase, “which block the integration of the HIV provirus into the target’s cell DNA”, provide hope for AIDS sufferers for the future (Marieb 819) (Divisions).