Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, better known as AIDS, is caused

by the incurable HIV virus. AIDS is a deadly disease that deteriorates the

immune system. There are two groups of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus),

HIV-1 that occurs throughout the world and HIV-2 that mainly occurs in Africa.

The HIV virus enters the white blood cells and takes over the reproductive

system of that cell and uses the system to reproduce itself. The white blood cell

dies and the new HIV cells infect other white blood cells and repeat the process.

If you have become infected with the AIDS disease you may not have any

symptoms of the for the next ten years. The AIDS disease makes the less

serious conditions harder for your body to control or get rid of because of the

loss of many of the white blood cells in your body. The most common causes of

death for the people with AIDS are pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma, which

afflict 70% of the infected people.

AIDS is transmitted in three ways. Intimate sexual contact is the most

common. While direct contact with infected blood and transactions to babies

from the infected mother's fetus will also cause the disease. Although some

speculation, you cannot receive the disease from air, food, water, or insects.

AIDS is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is a sentence of

slow but inevitable death. There currently is no cure or vaccine for this disease.

There are drugs that have been proven effective in slowing the spread of this

deadly disease. We know enough about how the infection is transmitted to

protect ourselves from it. But too few people are hearing the AIDS message.

Perhaps many simply don't like or want to believe what they hear, preferring to

think that AIDS "can't happen to them." Like other communicable diseases, AIDS

can strike anyone. AIDS doesn't just occur in certain social groups. We must all

protect ourselves from this infection and learn about it in time to take effective precautions. Given the right measures, no one needs to get AIDS. Now is the time to take charge against the AIDS disease. People must remember, that the most reliable person in charge of preventing you from getting AIDS, is yourself!