Archive for the ‘Causes’ Category
Most commonly, HIV infection is spread by having sex with an infected partner. The virus can enter the body through the lining of the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or mouth during sex. Although initially AIDS cases occurred primarily in homosexual males in the United States, more recently the majority of new cases are in the heterosexual population.
- HIV also spreads through contact with infected blood through a transfusion of contaminated blood or blood components.
- HIV frequently spreads among injection drug users who share needles or syringes that are contaminated with blood from an infected person.
- Women can transmit HIV to their babies during pregnancy or birth.
- The virus does not spread through casual contact such as sharing of food, utensils, towels and bedding, swimming pools, telephones, or toilet seats. The virus is also unlikely to be spread by contact with saliva.
- People who already have a sexually transmitted disease, such as syphilis, genital herpes, chlamydial infection, gonorrhea, or bacterial vaginosis, are more likely to acquire HIV infection during sex with an infected partner.
In January 1993, the original defining criteria for AIDS was changed by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prior to that time, to be diagnosed with AIDS, patients had to exhibit one or more of 25 symptoms listed by the CDC, and also be HIV-positive. In 1993, the CDC added three new conditions to this listÑcancer of the cervix, bacterial pneumonia, and tuberculosisÑwhich, when accompanied by HIV, is now considered to be AIDS. The effect of this decision dramatically and, some claim, artificially inflated the statistics of people who have AIDS. In the U.S. alone, the figures immediately rose from 250,000 to 400,000, causing noted epidemiologist, Gordon Stewart, M.D. of England to ask, “Will any woman with cervicitis, any man with urethritis, prostatitis, genitourinary cancer or any cancer, or perhaps severe infection, or any other unspecified, wasting or multiple disease, who happens to be HIV-positive, be diagnosed and registered as having AIDS and treated for HIV disease just because those in the business can expand their domain across any diagnostic code and scruple?”
The AIDS pandemic is likely to become the greatest catastrophe in human history. Unless a safe, effective vaccine is quickly developed, or the preventive strategies outlined in this book are widely applied, by 2015 one sixth of the world’s population will be infected by HIV – 1 and some 250 million people will have died from AIDS. Its associated losses by then will be more than those of the Black Death and World War II combined, the equivalent of eight World War I’s [1].
This pandemic is only one of several ongoing catastrophes involving viruses that encode the selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase [2].
Indeed, the world is experiencing simultaneous pandemics caused by Hepatitis B and C viruses, Coxsackie B virus and HIV – 1 and HIV – 2. As these viruses replicate, because their genetic codes include a gene that is virtually identical to that of the human enzyme glutathione peroxidase, they rob their hosts of selenium.
If you have engaged in unprotected sex or shared needles while using drugs, you should have an HIV test. Early detection and treatment of the infection can slow the growth of HIV.
- If you are pregnant, you may be able to reduce the risk to your unborn child by getting treatment early.
- You can also avoid infecting others if you know that you have the disease. Testing is available anonymously and confidentially. You can even test yourself at home.
People known to have HIV infection or AIDS should go to the hospital any time they develop high fever, shortness of breath, coughing up blood, severe diarrhea, severe chest or abdominal pain, generalized weakness, severe headache, seizures, confusion, or change in mental status. These may be the indication of a life-threatening condition for which an urgent evaluation in the hospital’s emergency