Essay, Research Paper: Aids: Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

AIDS:
Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome


I am doing a report on AIDS, I don't know

much about AIDS but I will tell you what I know. I

know that it is transmitted by sexual

contact,blood,needles,children during/before birth.

I also know it affects the immune system directly, It

is caused by the virus HIV which they have no

cure for either AIDS or HIV at the current

moment, but they are doing serious research on

them.


I call it the "Generation X Disease" because it

mostly affects my sex-oriented generation. It is

currently one of the leading causes of death in the

USA and the death rate is increasing drastically! It

it the perfect virus of the ninties because of how it is

transmitted is like what the ninties is about... sex

and drugs(what a great generation huh).

Everyone's doing drugs and having pre-marital sex

at a young irresponsable age, it's getting so bad I

am beginning to believe that I am the only normal

person left.


You used to only be able to get an HIV test at

your doctor, but now they have home tests that are

confidential. You go to the store pick one up prick

your finger then mail in the blood sample, in about

two or three weeks you call in and enter your

special pin number and they give you your results. I

think this is cool but there has to be some

drawbacks like them getting samples messed up

and it getting mixed up in the mail or other stupid

things like that, like if you really don't have the

disease but you get someone elses reading who does

have HIV.

Thats about all I know about this horrible

disease,so ill move on to what I found when I

reaserched this topic. I went on the internet to find

some of my information, and i used different books

the librarian recommended me to read on AIDS

and HIV.


AIDS appears to be constantly changing it's

genetic structure so it makes it very hard to find a

cure for it, and very hard for the body to make

antibodies. This makes development of a vaccine

that is able to raise protective antibodies to all virus

strands a difficult task. I also found out that they

have made so much progress in finding a cure

because they know so much about it now.


The only known chemical that is effective in

reducing reactions/symptoms, is the chemical

zidovudine which was formerly called

azidothymidine(AZT). Which was developed in

1987. It is indicated thet few if any are likely to

survive the virus in the long run.


The AIDS epidemic is having a major impact

on many aspects of medicine and health care. The

U.S. Public Health Service estimates thet the annual

cumulative lifetime cost of treating all persons with

AIDS in 1991 is $5.3 billion; this was expected to

reach $7 billion by 1991. People exposed to HIV are

having alot of difficulty obtaining adequate health

insurance coverage. I found that Yearly AZT

expenses, for example can average around six-

thousand dollars, although in 1989 the drug's

maker did offer to distribute AZT freely to HIV-

infected children. The yearly se for DDI is around

two-thousand dollars.


It is a big problem problem when legal action

might have to be taken. Pretty soon mandatory

testing of the disease will be a necessity not a right,

and most people are to scared or to embarassed to

ask their partner if they are infected.


The first case of AIDS was identified in 1979

in New York. Workers in the National Cancer

Institute developed tests for AIDS enabeling them

to follow the transmission of the disease and to

study the origin and it's mechanism.


It is thought that AIDS was originated in

Africa, because it is know to infect some african

monkeys and alot of cases have been reported there.

In 1990 the WHO(World Health Orginization)

announced that there was 203,599 reported cases of

AIDS in 1996 it was in the millions! So this shows

how fast this disease spreads and how it affects

everyone.