Incurable disease AIDS

Today, the world is worst alarmed by an incurable disease AIDS. AIDS has been spreading in the world like a wild fire. AIDS is a global problem and there should be a global solution found by the entire international community. It is really scary to see and imagine our world fall into pieces because we refuse to share and put in the common vestiges of our civilizations. â€Å"It could be said that the AIDS pandemic is a classic own-goal scored by the human race against itself. † – Princess Anne, Ireland. The Origin of Aids: -AIDS is caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Sub-Saharan Africa and was transferred to humans during the late 19th or early 20th century. Two types of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is more virulent, is more easily transmitted and is the cause of the vast majority of HIV infections globally. The pandemic strain of HIV-1 is closely related to a virus found in the chimpanzees of the subspecies Pan troglodytes, which lives in the forests of the Central African nations of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Central African Republic. HIV-2 is less transmittable and is largely confined to West Africa, along with its closest relative, a virus of the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys atys) an Old World monkey inhabiting southern Senegal, Guinea, and western Ivory Coast. â€Å"It is clear before God and man that the entire war on HIV and AIDS has not been waged with any degree of piety, responsibility and care. †| Symptoms of Aids: -The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages. Opportunistic infections are common in people with AIDS. These infections affect nearly every organ system. That’s what prompted James Ander ton to say that, Everywhere I go I see increasing evidence of people swirling about in a human cesspit of their own making. | People with AIDS have had their immune system damaged by HIV and are very susceptible to these opportunistic infections. Common symptoms are: * Chills * Fever * Sweats (particularly at night) Swollen lymph glands * Weakness * Weight loss Causes for Aids: -Reckless life style is the major cause for HIV. The virus can be spread (transmitted): * Through sexual contact — including oral, vaginal, and anal sex * Through blood — via blood transfusions or needle sharing * From mother to child — a pregnant woman can transmit the viru s to her foetus through their shared blood circulation, or a nursing mother can transmit it to her baby in her breast milk Other methods of spreading the virus are rare and include accidental needle injury, artificial insemination with infected donated semen, and organ transplantation with infected organs. However considering the patients to be untouchable is unconditionally disgraceful. Sometimes I have a terrible feeling that I am dying not from the virus, but from being untouchable. – Amanda Heggs| HIV infection is NOT spread by: * Casual contact such as hugging * Mosquitoes * Participation in sports * Touching items that were touched by a person infected with the virus Aids and blood or organ donation: -AIDS is NOT transmitted to a person who DONATES blood or organs. People who donate organs are never in direct contact with people who receive them. Likewise, a person who donates blood is never in contact with the person receiving it. In all these procedures, sterile needles and instruments are used. However, HIV can be transmitted to a person RECEIVING blood or organs from an infected donor. To reduce this risk, blood banks and organ donor programs screen donors, blood, and tissues thoroughly. What is necessary to change a person, is to change his awareness of himself. -Abraham Maslow. Aids Awareness programmes: – * AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death among people ages 25 – 44 in the United States, down from number one in 1995. * The World Health Organization estimates that more than 25 million people worldwide have died from this infection since the start of the epidemic. * In 2008, there were approximately 33. 4 million people around the world living with HIV/AIDS, including 2. 1 million children under age 15. Complete extinction of impure thought is impossible without ceaseless penance. Mahatma Gandhi | The government has drawn up a strategy to fight AIDS that seeks to unite all sectors in a common programme. The national health department is the main driver of a strategic plan to coordinate the fight against AIDS by the whole country. These include traditional healers, business and religious organisations. The priority areas in this plan are: * Prevention; * Treatment, care and support; * Legal and human rights; * Monitoring, research and evaluation Conclusion: -As of now, there is no cure for AIDS, though there are drugs that prolong a patient’s life. There is a huge amount of research going on in this regard, especially in the US, and hopefully, a cure (or a vaccine) will be discovered. However, moral life alone is the best medicine to prevent AIDS. As a nation we should commit ourselves not only to the fight against terrorism, but to economic justice, defeat of the AIDS epidemic and vestiges of discriminatory policies of all kinds.