AIDS- causes, symptoms, preventions & effects (economic, social & political)?
402758
Symptoms:\nThe symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of infections that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. These are called opportunistic infections.\n\nPatients with AIDS have had their immune system depleted by HIV and are very susceptible to such opportunistic infections. Common symptoms are fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss.\n\nSee the signs and tests section below for a list of common opportunistic infections and major symptoms associated with them.\n\nNote: Initial infection may produce no symptoms. Some people with HIV infection remain without symptoms for years between the time of exposure and development of AIDS. However, some people develop what feels like flu about two weeks after contracting the virus.\n\nSigns and tests:\nThe following is a list of AIDS-related infections and cancers that people with AIDS acquire as their CD4 count decreases. Previously, having AIDS was defined by having HIV infection and acquiring one of these additional diseases, but now it is simply defined as a CD4 count below 200. Many other illnesses and corresponding symptoms may develop in addition to those listed here.\n\n\nPrevention:\nThe following steps may seem personally restrictive, but they are effective and can save your life.\n\n1.See the article on safe sex to learn how to reduce the chance of acquiring or spreading HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.\n2.Do not use intravenous drugs. If IV drugs are used, do not share needles or syringes. Many communities now have needle exchange programs where used syringes can be disposed of and new, sterile needles obtained for free. 3.These programs can also provide referrals to addiction treatment.\n4.Avoid contacting blood from injuries or nosebleeds where the HIV status of the bleeding individual is unknown. 5.Protective clothing, masks, and goggles may be appropriate when caring for people who are injured.\n6.Anyone who tests positive for HIV may pass the disease on to others and should not donate blood, plasma, body organs, or sperm. An infected person should warn any prospective sexual partner of their HIV-positive status, should not exchange body fluids during sexual activity, and must use whatever preventative measures (such as condoms) will afford the partner the most protection.\n7.HIV-positive women who wish to become pregnant should seek counseling about the risk to unborn children and medical advances which may help prevent the fetus from becoming infected. Use of certain medications can dramatically reduce the chances that the baby will become infected during pregnancy.\n8.Mothers who are HIV-positive should not breast feed their babies.\n9.Safe-sex practices, such as latex condoms, are highly effective in preventing HIV transmission. HOWEVER, there remains a risk of acquiring the infection even with the use of condoms. Abstinence is the only sure way to prevent sexual transmission of HIV.\n\n=)
731389
On the basis that you were indeed asking for websites which the previous respondent seemed to forget, here is one that might provide some useful info.  It is my own site, a little in need of a pruning but has a substantial amount of HIV information.\n\nhttp://www.mark.lineisp.co.uk/hiv1.htm
8291
There are many medicines that can combat the effects of HIV/AIDS. These are mostly a class of drugs called "anti-retrovirals" that keep the virus from reporoducing.\nYou can find a database of these drugs at:\nhttp://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=ar-00-02
275467
This should help you answer your questions...\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV
1149234
HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa is primarily a heterosexual disease; and many factors contribute towards it : low education levels, male-oriented societies with multiple partners and wives the norm, traditional healing/witchcraft beliefs (eg belief that sleeping with a virgin cures AIDS, discouragement of condoms), poverty/malnutrition and concomitant illnesses accelerating HIV progression, slow governmental reaction and lack of political leadership and will (South Africa), lack of money for adequate anti-retrovirals (and poor compliance due to lack of education), and a blind eye turned on the problem by the rest of the world when compared to ridiculously insignificant global problems (comparatively speaking) such as bird flu etc.\n\nIt is an absolute tragedy, and has decimated many communities (and continues to do so).
349189
You can be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and have no symptoms at all. On average, it takes about 7 to 9 years for symptoms to develop. Most symptoms of AIDS are not caused directly by the HIV virus, but by an infection or other condition acquired due to the weakened immune system. Symptoms can include severe weight loss, fevers, headaches, drenching night sweats, fatigue, severe diarrhea, shortness of breath, and difficulty swallowing. The symptoms tend to last for weeks or months at a time and do not go away without treatment. Since these symptoms are commonly seen in other diseases, you can't assume any symptom is HIV/AIDS-related until you get laboratory tests. See a doctor if you think you may be at risk or if you have symptoms. \nYou might not know if you get infected by HIV. Some people get fever, headache, sore muscles and joints, stomach ache, swollen lymph glands, or a skin rash for one or two weeks. Most people think it's the flu. Some people have no symptoms. \nThe virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks or even months before your immune system responds. During this time, you won't test positive for HIV, but you can infect other people. \nWhen your immune system responds, it starts to make antibodies. When you start making antibodies, you will test positive for HIV. \nAfter the first flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer. But during this time, HIV is damaging your immune system. \nOne way to measure the damage to your immune system is to see how many CD4+ cells you have. These cells, also called "T-helper" cells, are an important part of the immune system. Healthy people have between 500 and 1,500 CD4+cells in milliliter of blood. \nWithout treatment, your CD4+ cell count will most likely go down. You might start having signs of HIV disease like fevers, night sweats, diarrhea, or swollen lymph nodes. If you have HIV disease, these problems will last more than a few days, and probably continue for several weeks.
440727
The problem in the third world countries is not money to be solved by these aids. The problem is corruption, ignorance and social underdevelopment. People there should wake up, thats their only way.
681674
My answer was inacurate, the two answers following however quoted an excellent article. To save others the effort I will put the link in here. This article does an excellent job explaining the origions of HIV and the few places I have checked to verify the information contained in the article have checked out.
489037
AIDS spreads and effects millions of people each year, by discussing the effects of aids, how it spreads and how it can be stopped one day we may see a difference in the number of cases.
919659
AIDS is the disease caused by the HIV virus.\n\nYou can get infected with HIV if the virus passes into your body from someone else who is already infected.\n\nThere are two main ways this can happen:\n\n1. Through having unprotected (no condom) vaginal or anal sex with someone who has HIV. Oral sex carries a small risk of transmission. There has never been a reported case of transmission through kissing (even deep kissing).\n\n2. Through someone else's infected blood getting directly into your bloodstream, for example through sharing drug or tattoo needles or injecting equipment, or piercing with unsterile equipment. In the first half of the 1980s a number of people were infected from contaminated blood transfusions, but this is very rare now because blood donations are screened. Sometimes HIV is passed from an infected mother to her foetus either in the womb or during birth.\n\nYou CANNOT get HIV through normal non sexual contact, or from sharing eating utensils or from mosquitoes.
956029
Population:\n\n64,631,595\nnote: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
274592
The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages. Opportunistic infections are common in people with AIDS [18]. Nearly every organ system is affected. People with AIDS also have an increased risk of developing various cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma, cervical cancer and cancers of the immune system known as lymphomas.\n\nAdditionally, people with AIDS often have systemic symptoms of infection like fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss [19][20]. After the diagnosis of AIDS is made, the current average survival time with antiretroviral therapy is estimated to be now more than 5 years [21], but because new treatments continue to be developed and because HIV continues to evolve resistance to treatments, estimates of survival time are likely to continue to change. Without antiretroviral therapy, progression to death normally occurs within a year [8]. Most patients die from opportunistic infections or malignancies associated with the progressive failure of the immune system [22].\n\nThe rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals and has been shown to be affected by many factors such as host susceptibility [9][10][13], health care and co-infections [8][22], and peculiarities of the viral strain [15][23][24]. Also, the specific opportunistic infections that AIDS patients develop depends in part on the prevalence of these infections in the geographic area in which the patient lives.
881915
AIDS is a really serious problem.  People should definately worry about it more because it changes your life.  I think people who have AIDS should be honest with their parteners (because most aren't) and warn them.  AIDS is an auto immune disease.  You get sick easily, and it will most likely result in a premature death.
407185
64,631,595\n\nnote: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
577570
Aids is a disease that is spread through intercourse with different partners during sexual acts, or sharing dirty infected needles for drug useage, or even from bodily fluids being exchanged...
100379
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (or acronym AIDS or Aids), is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific "damage to the immune system" caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).\n\nTherefore, it damages the immune system of the affected person thereby making him/her prone to opportunistic infections and tumors.
440670
all i will say is check out this link headed by duesberg the top virologist who address the misconception within the public sphere and scientific community about HIV and AIDS \nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6814491427846073388&q=AIDS+CONSPIRACY&pl=true\n\nalternatively go to the Heal website\n\nlet me know what you think...