AIDS

AIDS is defined as an abbreviation for for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and is caused by the HIV virus.

Facts About AIDS and HIV

• HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, a virus that can be contracted in a small number of ways.

• Once someone contracts the HIV virus from an infected person, the viral cells attach to CD4 lymphocyte helper cells within the body. Typically these types of cells are used to combat common infections within the human body; they are an essential part of the immune system.

• The viral cells continue to attach themselves to the CD4 cells and then multiply to destroy them; eventually those affected with HIV become unable to combat both common and uncommon infections.

• When this happens the patient is said to have full blown AIDS.

• AIDS is also diagnosed when amount of CD4 helpers left in the body drops below a certain required amount.

• The first cases of HIV were reported in the United States in 1981 in the cities of San Francisco and New York. Today those affected by the HIV virus can be found throughout the United States and the world.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 33.3 million people living in the world with HIV as of 2010.
• As of 2010, over 22 million of the 33.3 million adults and children with HIV lived in African countries where the economy allows limited access to the medications needed to treat and suppress the disease. The lowest number of cases is found in North Africa, with the Sudan showing the highest HIV concentration in that region.
• By the end of 2008, two million people had died of AIDS with 1.9 million of these people living in Africa.