about to show its versatility by appearing in several new population groups.
Indeed, epidemiologists were anticipating this development. If the new syndrome
could be spread by sex between two men, they asked themselves, might it also be
transmitted by sex between a man and a woman? And if it could be spread by blood
on contaminated needles used by heroin addicts, could it be spread by blood used
for medical purposes, such as during surgery? The answers to both questions
turned out to be affirmative. Between the end of 1981 and the end 1982, several
new groups were rapidly identified who were at greatly increased risk for
contracting AIDS. They were as follows: *Women who had sex with men who had the
AIDS infection. *Babies born to women infected with the AIDS virus.
*Hemophiliacs who injected blood products containing a clotting factor. *Surgery
patients who were transfused with contaminated blood. *Newly arrived immigrants
from Haiti and their sexual contacts. In each instance, transmission was either
sexual contact or through receiving infected blood. It is essential to recognize
that as each risk group was identified, it fit one of these patterns of
transmission. There was no group of unexplained AIDS cases that could have been
spread by casual contact, such as being sneezed on by person with AIDS or eating
food prepared by a person with AIDS. From May 1981 to the present, all evidence
has confirmed that AIDS is spread only by intimate contact, not by the
day-to-day, public encounters we all have in our business and social lives. But
with the regard of the two ways that AIDS is transmitted, blood and sex, it is
clear the illness does not select particular groups to afflict. It does not
matter if you whether you are a man or women, or what type of lifestyle you
practice. If you are injected or transfused with contagious blood or take into
your body other contagious bodily fluids, such as vaginal secretions or semen,
you run a high risk of getting AIDS. Minute amounts of these fluids pose very
little threat to transmitting the virus, and most nongenital fluids, such as
saliva, are currently thought to pose no risk whatsoever of transmitting it.
There is, however, a theoretical risk involved when any fluid is passed from an
infected person, though the relative risk is extremely small. Research is still
being done to prove these conjecture. 80 percent of babies HIV positive did not
develop AIDS although, their mother had AIDS. HEMOPHILIACS There are several
diseases in which the blood does not clot properly. Those born with these
conditions lack one of the many elements in the blood that are essential to stop
bleeding. Hemophilia A is an inherited clotting disorder that afflicts men
almost exclusively. In a person with severe hemophilia A, internal bleeding or
bleeding into joints can lead to serious complication, possibly even death. Even
small cuts clot slowly. It was persons with severe hemophilia A who were at
highest risk to get AIDS. To control their bleeding tendency, hemophiliacs
inject themselves with a concentrated preparation made from the blood of persons
with normal clotting ability. This preparation, called Factor VIII, is credited
with increasing the life expectancy of hemophiliacs in the last two decades from
35 to 55 years old. Some hemophiliacs have a mild disorder and use Factor VIII
only when they actually have a bleeding episode. But all hemophiliacs depend on
it at some point. Factor VIII, which was life saving for hemophiliacs, suddenly
turned to be an instrument of death. The preparation is made by pooling blood
collected from 2,000 to 5,000donors, then concentrating it, quick-drying it, and
putting it in vials. Because so many people’s blood was represented in each vial
of Factor VIII, the possibility existed that at least one donor had AIDS or was
harboring the AIDS organism-especially because drug users (until concerns were
raised about infected donors) often sold their blood for cash. And because each
hemophiliac uses 20, 30, or 40 vials of Factor VIIII each year, there was a good
chance that he would encounter a contaminated vial sooner or later. IDENTIFYING
THE VIRUS In particular, no known infectious agent was capable of producing the
specific destruction of the immune system that AIDS causes. Underlying all the
symptoms of AIDS is one primary defect: loss of a pivotal type of white blood
cells called the T4 helper lymphocyte(The role of T4 lymphocytes is to help
other types of immune cells become active and do their job. Without the T4
helper cells, the immune system virtually shuts down. And in some AIDS patients
there was an almost complete loss of T4 helper cells. Viruses are the most
minute form of life. Some people would not even call viruses living organisms.
They are many times smaller than bacteria, the other cause of human infectious
disease. Whereas bacteria are independent, able to grow and reproduce outside
cells of the organism they infect, viruses are parasites. In order to make more
of their kind, viruses must enter the cells of the creature they infect and take
over the cellular machinery. They subvert its productive power by making more of
their own kind. The cell dies, but the virus thrives. The virus is an
intracellular parasite because it’s structure, unlike that of a bacterium, is
too rudimentary to sustain itself-it must live within another cell (Bacteria are
internally complex, containing all the equipment necessary for life). Viruses
contain only the genetic material necessary to propagate themselves and a
tightly wrapped protective coat of proteins. These differences lead to a crucial
medical distinction between bacteria and viruses. Twentieth-century medical
science has developed many antibiotics drugs, such as penicillin, to combat
bacterial infections. But viruses are more difficult to kill. Because they
reproduce inside of our own cells, it is difficult to find a drug to stop the
virus from reproducing without harming the host cell. Progress against diseases
caused by viruses-such as small pox, mumps, measles, and polio-has come through
vaccines, which prevent infections. Latency, means that the infection stays in a
person’s body for a while before it causes clinical illness. Because viruses can
lie dormant inside cells, they can have long latency periods. The latency
periods for AIDS-the time between exposure to the infection and the first
symptoms-may be as long as eight years, but it is usually three to five years.
In children the latency is much shorter, and in women it may be shorter than in
men. Persistence refers to how long the infectious agent remains after it starts
the disease. With AIDS it is most likely that the agent stays for the person’s
remaining lifetime. Despite treatment of each opportunistic infection, the
immune system remains impaired. As fast as new immune cells are made they are
destroyed. One tentative conclusion is that a viral ancestor of HIV evolved in
Africa millions of years ago and affected monkeys. Gradually it changed to the
form of HIV we see today. But this still does not explain why the virus suddenly
started causing human disease in the last quarter of the 20th century. THE
OFFICIAL U.S. DEFINITION OF AIDS There are two factors which determine the
category: T-cell count and history of disease of symptoms. The T-cell
(officially called CD4lymphocyte) is the vulnerable immune system cell the HIV
virus attacks, then uses as a breeding ground. Eventually, the T-cells killed by
the virus. As a person’s T-cell count decreases, the risk of severe disease, or
"opportunistic illness", increases. The three official levels of
T-cell counts are: Level 1: a T-cell count greater than 500cells/ml Level 2: a
T-cell count between 200-499 cells/ml Level 3: a T-cell count less than 200
cells/ml These categories are based on the lowest T-cell count registered by a
person. For example, someone who once tested at 180 but later received a boost
in T-cells from a new protease inhibitor would still be considered level 3. To
determine the three official government classifications, symptoms are also a
factor. For example, a patient is in AIDS category 1 if he or she is
asynmptomatic (no symptoms) and has a level 1 T-cell count. An AIDS category 2
patient has a level 2 T-cell count and at least one of the early stage illness
but has not developed a later-stage disease, such as pneumonia or Kaposi’s
sarcoma. In category 3-full-blown AIDS-the T-cell count has dropped below 200
and the patient has developed a later-stage disease. TREATMENT BREAKTHROUGHS
There have been so many attempts to find a solution to end with AIDS but it’s
too complex and we know little of it, therefore it’s difficult to find a
solution. Although, many experiments have been made for example the cocktail.
It’s a treatment of vaccines that combine with an AZT. However, this vaccines
does work for some but for others it does not do anything. Yet, the newest
discovery is that some people are born with a certain type of gene that does not
develop AIDS but has the virus. So this person may pass on the Virus and have it
himself but it will not affect him at all.