A deadly virus of epidemic proportion rapidly spreads throughout the
world. Since 1984, nearly fifty million people have been infected in America alone.
There is no cure for this virus and drugs alone wont stop it from attacking your immune
system. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, has infected millions of
people and sadly many of them being young children and teenagers.
When the body is infected with HIV, which AIDS develops from, it tries
to make antibodies to fight off the virus. Testing for HIV includes looking for these
anitbodies, when they are found an person is considered "HIV positive". When a person
is infected with HIV it may lay dormant in their system for years. As the disease
develops, its slowly and surely wears down the immune system. The immune system
cannot fight off the virius's and the disease that the body can usually make antibodies for.
These types of infection are known as opportunistic diseases. These can cause life
threatening situations that are serious and may lead to dealth.
When AIDS weakens the immune system the person infected has a higher
rate of getting sick. They do not have the ability to fight off the bacteria and virus that
we fight off everyday. Even the common cold can put them in the hospital for days. One
of the leading killer of people with AIDS is pneumonia, just imagine how sick it makes
healthy people let alone a person without a strong immune system.
HIV can be contratced in different ways. The virus can be contracted from
having unprotected sex, sharing needles, be given to a baby from its mother, or through
any type of blood transfusion. The HIV virus is carried through blood, semen, vaginal
fluid, and breast milk. Although people think this is true , you can not receive HIV, or
AIDS by kissing, hugging, tears, sweat, feces, or urine. Blood has the highest content of
the virus, followed by semen, vagina
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