AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is one of the top ten causes of death in the United States, and is recognized as the final stage of the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). The primary way people are passing along the HIV disease is through sexual contact without any protection. Other ways of transfer is through sharing needles or other instruments used to puncture the skin and expose blood between one another, and also through breast milk. There is still no 100% cure for AIDS, but there just might be one soon to come into existence in the near future.
What exactly is AIDS?
The way it works is through stages that start out as HIV, and then finally end as AIDS. This virus attacks the various immune systems that are found within the human body, and these immune systems are designed to fight off bacteria, viruses, and parasites in the most common of stages. Healthy people have no worries of really ever dying from the common cold, but with a weakened immune system caused by AIDS, the person may experience a deadly end result.
Another result to come from a weakened immune system is cancer because the body simply cannot stop these abnormal growths of cells. A normal person with cancer already has a rapid cell development, and one with AIDS is nearly double it. Leukemia is one of the primary cancers to be formed while diagnosed with AIDS.
Myths and Symptoms of AIDS
Many people who do not know any better believe that being in the same room as someone diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is contagious, but this simply is not true. Casual based contact with a person or touching the same items as an AIDS patient is not contagious at all. Opposed to another belief, mosquitoes do not carry HIV/AIDS either. Basically, hugging a person with AIDS is completely okay.
Symptoms of AIDS are usually hard to detect because of its common forthcoming. Most people will experience flu-like symptoms such as a fever and nausea, and then all of a sudden it will go away and lie dormant for years. Some people even have no symptoms at all for over ten years, but that does not mean during that time people have not been infected by the AIDS host.
There is treatment to prevent AIDS from occurring, and this form of treatment and medication is designed to stop HIV before it spreads to becoming AIDS. Once AIDS has been truly established inside the body the immune system begins to shut down. Fatigue and the ability to fight off the common cold become plain to recognize. An HIV blood test is the only way to know if no symptoms appear for the physician to diagnose.
A Possible Cure for AIDS
Five years ago a man with leukemia and AIDS was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a blood type that was able to resist the HIV disease. This person was called the "Berlin Man" because he received the treatment in Berlin. After the transplant no large amount of traceable HIV cells were found to be able to carry the disease on, thus destroying the chance of AIDS to reform. This is still a possibility because there are still some HIV cells found within the research patient's body, and that is why doctor's and scientist still refuse to state outright that there is a cure.
At the end of July, 2012, researchers came forth with a new claim that they had possibly relinquished two AIDS patients of their disease as well. They followed through with the same kind of bone marrow transplant while keeping their patients on HIV-antibodies. Through proper tests the end result was that there were no traces of HIV/AIDS within the two patient's blood and plasma. HIV-antibody counts had also significantly dropped, which would be because of the lowering of HIV cells, thus the need for more antibodies being lowered in the process.
Researchers claim that the reason this was possible is because of the donor's blood cells detecting the HIV cells and attacking them, which keeps them from developing further. This has been scientifically termed as graft vs. host disease. The possibilities of a cure for AIDS do seem to have some new hope, but it is still not recognized as a cure yet.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét