Aids Treatments

Aids is one of the most threatening disease which is effecting the lives of many people around the globe, plus the most astonishing fact is that it is effecting people and spreading at an exponential rate and as public awareness programs focus on it The most disturbing fact is that as the number of cases double a cures not in sight nor a vaccine has been developed and Aids is still an incurable condition.

The human immunodeficiency virus has a direct and a lethal on life, at its very core, the transmission occurs principally via blood, semen and “vaginal fluid other bodily fluids, like the saliva, contain far too low a concentration of the virus to be dangerous Both blood and semen signify life and potential life in a concrete way.” (Paskin, 1994)

AIDS is the most severe stage, of the infection with what we know as the AIDS virus. AIDS is also generally accepted as a syndrome, a collection of specific, life-threatening and dangerous signs that is due to an underlying immune deficiency, a deficiency not caused by any known conditions and illnesses other than infection with the AIDS virus.

It destroys the body’s capacity to ward off bacteria and viruses that would ordinarily be fought off by a properly functioning immune system, and it is the diseases, the opportunistic infections, caused by these outside agents that eventually kill the victim; or, death results from a form of cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, that is far more aggressive in AIDS patients than among those who do not suffer from AIDS.

Thus, one can say that AIDS killed the person, since the addition of the ‘S’ defines a syndrome: the collection of diseases and symptoms that resulted from the weakened immune system.

Putting it another way, one can say that the “AIDS virus itself does not kill, nor does it generally cause the various diseases associated with the syndrome; most of the disastrous events are simply the result of the damage to the immune system.” (Elli, 1992)

The treatment of HIV-related immunological and neurological disease involves the control of HIV replication by specific anti-viral drugs, boosting the host’s own immune response to HIV, dampening down any potentially harmful results of the immune response, and reconstituting the defective cell-mediated immunity.

Thus, a broad range of approaches are being tried. This in some way reflects the uncertainty regarding the pathogenesis of this infection. The management of the specific opportunist infections and tumors that arise because of the immunodeficiency are covered in Chapter 4.

Here, we will focus on the treatment of the underlying HIV infection. The ultimate goal for the HIV-infected person would be the eradication of HIV infection. However, this is unlikely to be achieved as the virus integrates into the host chromosome, and therefore all infected cells would have to be removed.

This may be possible in renewable tissue, such as lymphoid cells, but not within the nervous system, where cells cannot be replaced. However, if the virus could be suppressed to the level where it is not damaging the host or continuing to infect new cells, then the disease process may be halted.

The virus can potentially be inhibited in three ways: (1) by preventing binding or fusion to the target cell; (2) by inhibiting replication and release; and (3) by inducing non-infective particles

Despite many public health efforts and programs for the awareness of the disease around the globe it is still seen that in many underdeveloped countries Aids awareness programs do not work and people are still indulging into acts like prostitution and unsafe sexual activities.

So therefore to address this issue governments in these countries have conducted many health programs such as making people aware about the effects of the disease and  raising more informational sessions for people indulging into behaviors which are a main source in spreading this virus.

Now governments around the worlds are funding projects which are related to the disease so that the people at large do not get affected by the disease.

These public health efforts around the world especially in Asian and African countries has led to people becoming more aware of the hazards of the aids epidemic and because of these health awareness programs people to not indulge into unprotected sexual behavior.

Works Cited

Paskin, J. M. HIV and AIDS. Publisher: Bios Scientific Publishers. Place of Publication: Oxford, England. Publication Year: 1994.

Elli, Ottoman. HIV Infection and Intravenous Drug Use. Publisher: Praeger Publishers. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1992