Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Commonly Known As AIDS Emerged in the United States in 1981

HIV-AIDS

IDS 3303

Isabel Diaz

04/13/05

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome commonly known as AIDS emerged in the United States in 1981. There is no cure for it and people who become infected will eventually die unless a cure is found in time. AIDS is caused by the HIV virus, its formal name is: Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome. A person is first infected by the HIV virus and later as the Immune System deteriorates AIDS sets in. With a very weak and deteriorated Immune System the person falls pray to all sorts of viruses and infections. The individual starts to suffer from different forms of infections and cancers because the body cannot fight them. These infections are known as Opportunistic Infections. Some of the opportunistic infections might be: PCP pneumonia, Kaposi’s sarcoma among others (Thebody.com). Eventually the person dies from complications related to these infections.

The HIV virus is present in bodily fluids like: breast milk, semen, blood and vaginal fluids. These fluids spread the virus. The most common way to get the HIV virus is through unprotected sexual contact of any kind, including oral sex. Another way that people can become infected with the virus is by sharing needles (to shoot drugs) with an infected individual. In the past there was a risk of getting the HIV virus through a blood transfusion. Now days the blood used for this purpose is carefully screened so the probability of being infected by the virus is almost zero.

Some of the symptoms associated with the HIV virus and AIDS are: rapid weight loss, fatigue, swollen lymph glands, pneumonia etc. It is important to note that some people might not develop any symptoms at all. The only way to truly know is to get tested. The HIV test is performed in the form of a blood test. The blood is screened for CD4+ cells. When the virus infects a person, the body produces antibodies to fight it. In the test they screen for antibodies, not for the virus itself. If the person tests positive that means that they are infected and other tests are performed to validate the first result. If the person tests negative that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not infected. Because the virus can take up to six months to develop it cannot be proven that a person is not infected until a test is performed six months after a previous negative test. That is only true if the person has not been involved in any unsafe practices during the time between the tests.

An HIV positive person might be healthy and completely unaware that they are infected. On average it takes about ten years for an HIV positive person to develop AIDS. Once AIDS develops, the person starts to get sick and the opportunistic infections take root. However the average incubation period of the virus has started to change. Last February a new strand of the HIV virus was discovered. Genetic testing was conducted to find out how different it is from the known strand. “The study, appearing in The Lancet, a medical journal, shows the virus to be resistant to nearly all licensed drugs and particularly aggressive”(Santora par. 2). It is not the first time that the virus has undergone mutations, which make it more resistant to drugs. There have also been instances where the virus has progressed to AIDS quickly. However what worries public officials and scientists is that this new strand presents both mutations. This is a very dangerous situation.

I have given a basic overview of the HIV virus and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Now I will give a more scientific explanation of how the virus enters and infects the immune system. The HIV virus like any other virus is not considered a living organism because viruses are acellular. That means that they have no cells therefore they are incapable of cellular respiration and metabolism. A virus consists of one or two strands of nucleic acids (either DNA or RNA but not both) surrounded by a protein coat. When a virus enters an organism or in the case of the HIV virus: a human, it produces copies of itself to further infect the host. “Incapable of self-reproduction, they invade cells and force the genetic material of the host to manufacture more viruses” (Campbell-Reese, p330).

The HIV virus has a specially shaped protein in the surface of their protein coat that enables it to bind to a macrophage: a cell present in human white blood cells. Macrophages are in charge of eating harmful bacteria that enters the body. After the virus is bound to this cell it undergoes a mutation that enables it to attach itself to a host cell. Now the contents of the virus invade the host cell. The viral RNA is converted to DNA. The viral DNA inside the cell forces the cell to produce copies of the virus. These copies exit the cell. These new copies of the virus constantly challenge the Immune System. Eventually during the replication process where new copies of the virus are manufactured a mutation occurs. This mutated form of the virus has a differently shaped protein in its protein coat, which enables it to bind to T lymphocyte CD4+ cells. This is the most critical point in the infection process because the T cells are extremely important to our Immune System. Once the virus infects the T cells these rupture, in the absence of these cells the Immune System collapses. The T cells are responsible for activating the Immune System when an infection happens. In the absence of T cells the Immune System cannot react and defend the organism from infections.

Currently the treatment used for AIDS patients are drug cocktails. Drugs like AZT inhibit the replication process needed for the making of new copies of the virus. Protease Inhibitors are another kind of drug in the cocktails. They inhibit the production of the proteins present in the protein envelope of the virus (Aidsinfo.nih.gov). These drugs slow down the reproduction of the virus and help the patients stay healthy for a longer period of time. These drugs do not eliminate the virus. If the treatment is stopped the virus will resume its cycle. This treatment is expensive, time consuming and the patients have to cope with its side effects.

AIDS poses a real problem to our society as more people continue to get infected every year. As many as 40,000 people a year in the United States alone (KnowHIV-AIDS.org) The government plays an important role in the allocation of resources for the treatment of people with AIDS. Policies like the Ryan White CARE Act offers federal grants to treatment centers for AIDS patients in major metropolitan areas (Ramsey par. 6) Government agencies and pharmaceutical companies are also involved in the manufacturing of drugs for the treatment of AIDS. Since there is no cure or vaccine capable of eliminating the virus we can only hope that in the future a breakthrough discovery will finally warrant the end of this indiscriminative foe.

Annotated Bibliography.

A web site containing information about AIDS research, prevention methods, treatments. This is a very good site because it belongs to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Campbell, Neil A. and Reese B. Jane. Biology Sixth Edition. Pearson Education Inc. San Francisco. 2002

This book is used in our biology classes here on FGCU. This text dedicates an entire chapter to the study of viruses. In this chapter the HIV virus is covered. This is a very reliable source.

This website is funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The website is a part of a campaign to inform the public about AIDS. It has information about the virus how it is spread, how it can be treated and how to reduce our risks of infection.

Ramsay, Craig.Perspectives on Political ScienceWashington: Spring 2003. Vol. 32, Iss. 2, p.105

This article gives information about governmental policies regarding the treatment of AIDS patients like the Ryan White CARE Act. It also talks about the role of the federal government and its involvement with the patients.

Santora, Mark. Rare AIDS strain is very aggressive, study says. New York Times. New York N.Y. Mar 18, 2005. p. B 3.

This article offers information on the new strain of AIDS that was discovered in March. This article is trustworthy because it appeared in the New York Times and the author obtained his information from a medical journal.

This is another good website that offers basic information about HIV and AIDS. It has information regarding symptoms related to the virus, testing localities. It covers practically all the topics related to HIV and AIDS.

Vodopich, Darrell and Moore Randy. Biology Laboratory Manual. Seventh Edition MacGraw-Hill New York N.Y. 2005.

Another very reliable source. This is the Laboratory Manual that accompanies the Biology text. This book also has information about the HIV virus. Mainly it gives information on shape, components and virology.