The Aids A Deadly Disease

1. Introduction
2. Overview
3. The types of AIDS infection
4. Transmission of AIDS
5. What will not transmit AIDS?
6. How is AIDS transmitted?
7. AIDS and sex: What are the rational options?
8. Monogamy
9. What is avoid
10. Conclusion

AIDS is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is at present a sentence of slow but inevitable death. Would already have lost many precious lives to AIDS. We may soon lose many others. In many parts of the world, one man in 10 may already be carrying the AIDS virus. While the figures may currently be less in much of the world, this is changing rapidly. There currently is neither a cure, nor even an effective treatment, and no vaccine either. But there are things that have been proven immensely effective in slowing the spread of this hideously lethal disease. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Disease. It is caused by a virus. The disease originated somewhere in Africa about 20 years ago. There it first appeared as a mysterious ailment afflicting primarily heterosexuals of both sexes. It probably was spread especially fast by primarily female prostitutes there. AIDS has already become a crisis of staggering proportions in parts of Africa. In Zaire, it is estimated that over twenty percent of the adults currently carry the virus. That figure is increasing. And what occurred there will if no cure is found, most likely occur here among heterosexual people.

AIDS was first seen as a disease of gay males in this country. This was result of the fact that gay males in the West in the days before AIDS had an average of 200 to 400 new sexual contacts per year. This figure was much higher than common practice among heterosexual men or women. In addition, it turned out that react sex was a particularly effectivr way to transmit the disease, and rectal sex is a common practice among gay males. For these reasons, the diseases spread in the gay male population of Western countries immensely more quickly than in other populations. It became to be thought of as a “gay disease”. Because the disease is spread primarily by exposure of ones blood to infected blood or semen, I.V.(intravenous) drug addicts shared needles also soon were identified as an effected group . As the AIDS epidemic began to affect increasingly large fractions of those two populations (gay males and I.V. drug abusers), many of the rest of this society looked on smugly, for both populations tended to be despised by the “mainstream” of society everywhere.

But AIDS is also spread by heterosexual sex. In addition, it is spread by blood transfusions. New born babies can acquire the disease from infected mother during pregnancy. Gradually more and more “mainstream” people got the disease. Basic medical research began to provide a few bits of information and some help. The virus causing the disease was isolated and identified. The AIDS virus turned out to be a very unusual sort of virus. Research provided the means to test donated blood for the presence of the antibodies to the virus, astronomically reducing the chance of ones getting AIDS from a blood transfusion. This was one of the first real breakthroughs. The same discoveries that allowed us to make our blood bank blood supply far safer also allowed us to be tell (in most cases) whether one has been exposed to the AIDS virus using a simple blood test. When the AIDS virus gets into a person’s body, the results can be broken down into three general types of situations: AIDS disease, ARC, and asymptomatic seropositive condition.

The AIDS disease is characterized by having one’s immune system devastated by the AIDS virus. One is said to have the disease if one contracts particular varieties of pneumonia, or one of several particular varieties of otherwise rare cancers. This disease is inevitably fatal. Death occurs often after many weeks or months of can transmit it to others by sexual contact or other exposure of an uninfected person’s blood to the blood or semen of the infected person.

There is also a condition referred to as ARC (“Aids Related Complex). In this situation, one is infected with the AIDS virus and one’s immune system is compromised, but not so much so that one gets the (ultimately lethal) cancers or pneumonias of the AIDS disease. One tends to be plagued by frequent colds, enlarged lymph needs, and the like. This condition can go on for years. One is likely to be able to infect others if one has ARC. Unfortunately, all those with ARC are currently felt to eventually progress to getting the full blown AIDS disease.

There are, however, many people who have no obvioussign of disease what so ever, but when their blood serum is tested they show positive evidence of having been exposed to the virus. This is on the basis of the fact that antibodies to the AIDS virus are found in their blood. Such “asymptomatic but seropositive” people may or may not carry enough virus to be infectious. Mostly sadly, through, current research and experience with the disease would seem to indicate that eventually nearly all people who are seropositive will develop the full blown AIDS disease. There is one ray of hope here: It may some cases take up to 15 years or more between one’s becoming seropositive for the AIDS virus and one’s developing the disease. Thus, all those millions( soon to be tens and hundreds of millions) who are now seropositive for AIDS are under a sentence of death, but a sentence that may not be carried out for one or two decades in a significant fraction of cases. Medical research holds the possibility of commuting that sentence, or reserving it.

There is one other fact that needs to be mentioned here because it is highly significant in determining recommendations for safe sexual conduct which will be discussed below: Currently, it is felt that after exposure to the virus, most people will turn seropositive for it (develop a positive blood test for it) within four months. There are few people whose blood shows no antibodies to the virus, but from whom live virus has been cultured. Thus, if one is seronegative, it is not exposed to the virus. This category of people is very hard to test for, and currently felt to be quite rare. Some even speculate that such people may be rare examples of those who are immune to the effects of the virus, but this remains speculation. It is not known if such people can also transmit the virus.

The AIDS virus is extremely fragile, and is killed by exposure to mild detergents or to chlorox, among other things. AIDS itself may be transmitted by actual virus particles, or by the transmission of living human cells that contain AIDS viral DNA already grafted onto the human DNA. Or both. Which of these two mechanisms is the main one is not known until now? But the fact remains that it is VERY hard to catch AIDS unless one engages in certain specific activities.

Casual contact (shaking hands, hugging, sharing tools) cannot transmit AIDS. Although live virus has been recovered from saliva of AIDS patients, the techniques used to do this involved concentrating the virus to extents many thousands of times greater than occur in normal human contact, such as kissing. There is no evidence that sharing food or eating utensils with an AIDS patient can transmit the virus. The same is true for transmission by sneezing or coughing. There just is no current that the disease can be transmitted that way. The same may be true even for biting, through here there may be some increased (though still remote) chance of transmitting the disease.

AIDS is transmitted particularly by the transmission of blood or semen or an infected person into contact with the blood of an uninfected person. As mentioned above, AIDS is also transmitted among intravenous drug user by the sharing of needles. Testing of donated blood for AIDS has massivly reduced the chance of catching AIDS from blood transfusions. But a very small risk still remains. To further reduce that risk, efforts have been made to use “autotransfusions” on cases of “elective surgery” (surgery that can be planned months in advance). Autotransfusion involves the patient storing their own blood a couple of weeks prior to their own surgery; to be used during the surgery if needed. Similarly, setting up donations of blood from friends and family known to be antibody negative and at low risk for AIDS prior to scheduled surgery further can decrease the already small risks from transfusion.

The “sexual revolution” of the 1960’s in the developed world has been slowed down in its tracks by the AIDS epidemic. The danger of contracting AIDS is so real now that it has massively affected the behavior of both gay and straight people who formerly had elected to lead an effective sexual life that included numerous new sexual contacts. There currently is no treatment for AIDS (this includes AZT) that show significant promise. It is my own strongly held view, and that of the medical and research community world wide, that the AIDS epidemic is serious problem, with the potential to become the worst plague this species has ever known. This is serous business. Vastly greater sums should be spent on searching for treatments and vaccines. On the other hand, we feel strongly that this not “merely” a disease; it is the warning from the God to misguided people. And while it does not seem likely we will find either a cure or a vaccine in the forseeable future it may be that truly effective treatments that can indefinitely prolong the life of AIDS victims