AIDS-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome was first acknowledged in 1981 in the United States and since has become a worldwide epidemic.

AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus also known as HIV . Which is caused by it killing or damaging cells of the body's immune system and it progressively destroys the body's capabilitiy to fight off the infections.

People diagnosed with AIDS may get life-threatening diseases which are caused by microbes such as viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick.

Transmission

HIV is spread most commonly by having sexual intercourse with an infected person. This is because the virus can enter the body in many ways such as through the lining of the vagina, penis, rectum, or through preforming oral during sex.

HIV frequently is spread among injecting drug users by sharing of needles/syringes contaminated with small quantities of blood from someone who is infected with the HIV virus.

Studies of families of people who are HIV-infected have shown that HIV can not be spread through everyday contact such as the sharing of kitchen/food utensils, using the same towels and bedding, telephones, or toilet seats.

Symptoms

These symptoms are usually experienced in a period of months to years before the onset of the AIDs.

• Lack of energy
• Weight loss
• Frequent fevers and sweats
• Persistant or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal)
• Persistant skin rashes or flaky skin
• Pelvic inflammatory disease in women that does not respond to any treatment
• Short term memory loss

These symptoms are experienced in people with the AIDs virus.

• Coughing, shortness of breath
• Seizures and lack of coordination
• Difficult or painful swallowing
• Mental symtoms such as confusion and forgetfulness
• Severe and persistent diarrea
• Fever
• Loss of vision
• Nausea, abdominal cramps and vomiting
• Weight loss and extreme fatigue
• Severe headaches
• Coma

Safe Sex

Condoms made of latex should be used and water-based lubricants. This offers partial protection against STD's and other viruses that can be transformed to your partner during anal, oral, or vaginal sex.

Although there has been some evidence to show that spermicides can actually kill HIV, unfortunatly there hasnt been any evidence that shows this can actually prevent a person from contracting HIV.

Childhood Inheritance

It is possible for a pregnant women to transmit the HIV virus to their unborn child, it is also shown that HIV can be transmitted through breast feeding by infected mothers.

It has been shown that if a pregnant woman takes a drug called AZT during her pregnancy, the risk of her baby also becoming effected is significantly reduced to 1% infact. She will have to take AZT during the pregnancy, throughout the labour and delivery of the baby and then her baby will also have to take the drug for the first six weeks after it is born.

Treatment

When AIDS was first acknowledged, there were no medicines available to cure the immune deficiency and there were a few treatments that existed for the diseases that resulted. During the past ten years, researchers have been able to develop many drugs to fight both HIV infection and its associated infections .

Combination Therapy

There are now fourteen available by prescription anti-HIV drugs, these drugs fall into three categories, they are as followed:

Nucleoside analogs These include AZT (Retrovir), ddC (HIVID), ddl (Videx), 3TC (Epivir), d4T (Zerit) and finally abacavir (Ziagen).

Protease inhibitors These include Indinavir (Crixivan), Amprenavir (Agenerase), Saquinavir (Fortovase), Nelfinavir (Viracept) and finally Ritonavir (Norvir).

Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors also known as NNRTIs these include Delavirdine (Rescriptor), Nevirapine (Viramune) and finally Efavirenz (Sustiva).

Studies have clearly shown that taking a three drug combination of these anti-HIV drugs are more effective than if you were to take just two of the combinations or even just one. The taking of these combinations is to prevent the disease from progressing anymore and death.

Prevention

No vaccine for HIV is available at this time, the only way to prevent any infection of the virus is to avoid or take precautions that put a person at risk of infection, such as having unprotected sex and the sharing of needles.

Many people infected with HIV have no symptoms, it can be in your system for anything up to 10 years without you realising before it develops into AIDs. Therefore, there is no way of knowing whether a sexual partner is infected unless he/she has been tested for the virus.

Freddie Mercury

On the 23rd of Nov 1991, Freddie Mercury died of AIDs at the age of 45. On the same day Freddie announced to the entire world that he had the AIDS virus and his fight against the virus was finally over and he died peacefully surrounded by friends and family. He had managed to keep his illness very private away from the press and only the people closest to him had been told.

If you are worried that you may have contracted the HIV virus please do a test!.

The virus has a 3 month incubation period which means that when you take the HIV test there is two separate stages to the process. You will need take one test followed by another test being taken 3 months later. Until the results of the second test are confirmed you are not in the clear so will need to take extra precautions for those three months.