Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Since acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) was source acknowledge more than than than 20 years ago, remarkable make out has been made in improving the quality and duration of life of persons with human immunodeficiency virus infection.During the first decade, this progress was associated with recognition of opportunistic disease processes, more effective therapy for complications, and introduction of prophylaxis against customary opportunistic infections (OIs).The second decade has witnessed progress in developing passing active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) as well as continuing progress in treating OIs (Masur, Kaplan &Holmes, 1999).Since the human immunodeficiency virus serologic test (enzyme immunoassay EIA, formerly enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ALISHA, became operable in 1984, allowing early diagnosis of the infection before onset of symptoms, human immunodeficiency virus infection has been best managed as a chronic disease and close to appropriately managed in an outpatient c atomic number 18 setting (Gallant, 2001).II. BackgroundA. EpidemiologyIn fall 1982, the Centers for Disease throw and Prevention (CDC) issued a case definition of acquired immune deficiency syndrome after the first 100 cases were reported. Since then, the CDC has revised the case definition a number of ages (1985, 1987, and 1993) All 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. dependencies and possessions, and independent nations in free friendship with the United States report AIDS cases to the CDC using a uniform superintendence case definition and case report from (CDC, 2000).Starting in the late 1990s, more states started to implement HIV case reporting in response to the ever-changing epidemic and the need for information on persons with HIV infection who sire not developed AIDS.As of December 2001, there were 816,149 reported cases of HIV/AIDS and 506, 154 adults, adolescents, and children in the United States (including U .S. dependencies, possession, and associated nations) living with AIDS. Unprotected sex and sharing of shot drug use equipment are the major means of transmission of HIV.A amount of money of 43, 158 AIDS cases were diagnosed in 2001. For men diagnosed with AIDS during 2001, 59% were in the picture show category of men who have sex with men 24% in injection drug use and 7% in heterosexual contact.In women diagnosed with AIDS during that same effect, 44% reported injection drug use and 52% reported heterosexual contact. Comparing race/ethnicity amount the three largest groups diagnosed in 2001, 20,752 were black, not Hispanics (CDC, 2002).The number of stack living with AIDS is not equally distributed throughout the United States. States with the largest number of reported AIDS cases during 2001 were New York (7,476), Florida (5,138), calcium (4,315), Texas (2,892), and Maryland (1,860) (CDC, 2002).AIDS has reached epidemic proportions in some other parts of the world. concord t o the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, more than 18.3 one thousand million people worldwide have died of AIDS and 34.3 million people are infected with HIV, with 5.4 million people newly infected with HIV in 1999 alone (Letvin, Bloom & Hoffman, 2001).UNAIDS (2001) reports that since the epidemic began, more than 60 million people have been infected with the virus, making it the most devastating disease ever.The early confirmed case of HIV infection was found in air drawn from an African man in 1959 (Stephenson, 2003). Although factors associated with the spread of HIV in Africa in the 1960s however, social changes such as easier access to transportation, change magnitude population density, and more frequent sexual contacts may have been more important (Stephenson 2003).III. DiscussionA. HIV TransmissionHIV-1 is transmitted in body fluids containing HIV and/or infected CD4+ (or CD4) T lymphocytes. These fluids include blood, seminal fluid, vaginal secretions, amnionic f luid, and breast milk.Mother-child transmission of HIV-1 may occur in utero, at the time of the delivery, or through breastfeeding, but transmission frequency during each period has been difficult to determine (Nduati et al., 2000). Any behavior that results in breaks in the unclothe or mucosa results in the increased probability of exposure to HIV (chart 1).Since HIV is harbored within lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, whatsoever exposure to infected blood results in a significant lay on the line of infection. The amount of virus and infected cells in the body fluid is associated with the essay of new infections.