HIV+AIDS

What is HIV and AIDS?
• AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS is the last stage of an infection that is known to be created by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). HIV is a retro virus that attacks and kills white blood cells (CD4). This weakens the body's immune system, so it makes the persons body more susceptible to infections and diseases that usually wouldn't be life threatening. But when HIV gets into the body, it will use up all those cute little cells. But instead of them going away they turn into more HIV cells and because those cells fight the bad stuff, you are very vulnerable to sickness'. You may not even know you have the sickness for a month or two, but you could be very well giving it to other, spreading the love. Some stuff you may notice is -headache -fever -sore throat -rashes -and swelling of the lymphs. But those symptoms may not appear for years but your only getting weaker and weaker.
 * Okay so there are plenty of types of cells in your immune system. CD4 cells are just one, They are almost like "factories" and they can be found all over the body.

History of HIV/AIDS
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• 1979 – A possible new disease emerges as a probably epidemic in Haiti. 1982 – A gay Los Angeles man is suspected of having this disease. By the mid-80’s, initial thoughts that this was a “Gay Flu,” as it was called, are eroded by the fact that Ryan White, an infected teenaged boy, fights a public battle to be able to attend school while those around him fear he brings death and disease. • In the United States, as in many countries and organizations, the issue of HIV/AIDS becomes political. Disagreement between Reagan staffers and the surgeon general differ over how the President, and the Government, should approach the issue. Reagan is severely criticized for the speed (or lack there of) at which his government responded. • It wasn't until 1985 that our government starting first paying attention to the disease after Rock Hudson (a famous movie star) was diagnosed, and in the same year killed by the disease. By then it was too late, the disease had already spread to every corner of the United States and many were infected (Shilts 3). • There had been a time before when the spread could of been prevented but by the year 1985 that time had passed and thousands were already infected with HIV that leads to AIDS. Part of the reason being is because it wasn't more cared about and was said to be a homosexual affliction and little would be gained by studying the disease. The media didn't want to cover stories on homosexuals and didn't think people would like topics on gay sexuality. It wasn't long before children, women, and many adults were effected and it became a national epidemic (3). **Current Epidemic In Africa and Around the World** • By 2007, more than 30 million people worldwide had been infected and were living with AIDS]], mostly women and children. Africa, in particular, has actually suffered a pandemic, with millions of children orphaned as a result of the disease. African American women's rates are higher than the rates for all men, except african american men. > In 2009 alone about 1.3 million people, including kids, passed away from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.8 million people became infected with HIV. Condoms play a very important role, the use of them will stop or slow the disease while in intercourse and now 8 of 11 people in Africa use them while having sex. The distrabution of condoms have changed too, they are now 10 for every man vs. the 4.6 per man in 2001. In 2009 300,000 children were reported with HIV alone, 30% of that was passed down from a mother. >
 * There are currently about 42 million people living with HIV or Aids and every year more than 3 million people will die from an AIDS related illness (StevenDowshen).
 * 2.5 million people in Africa have HIV, making it the most HIV populated region in the world.

How is it transmitted and what are they doing to stop the spread?
=How Do You Know if you have HIV/ AIDS, and How Can You Get tested?=
 * Ways the HIV/AIDS can be transmitted is through any kind of unprotected sex includes oral, and means not using a condom (StevenDowshen).
 * Needle sharing is an easy way to get the disease such as for drugs, or tattooing. Make sure if you use a needle it is clean and new (StevenDowshen).
 * From mother to child while pregnant. If doctors know a person has HIV/AIDS and is expecting they can usually stop the spread from mother to child (StevenDowshen).
 * Breast feeding can also cause a child to be infected with the disease, because it holds fluids with the disease in it.
 * If you already have any kind of STD, it is easier to catch HIV and AIDS during sexual encounters (StevenDowshen).
 * Medicines currently are able to slow down the disease, but there is not way to cure it or stop it form spreading. (StevenDowshen).
 * People used to not live very long after getting the disease but because of recent medicines people can live much longer than they could before. (Webmd.com)
 * There are some signs that can be symptoms of the HIV virus including,
 * Lack of energy
 * Weight loss
 * Frequent fevers and sweats
 * Persistent or frequent yeast infections
 * Persistent [|skin rashes] or flaky [|ski] n
 * Short-term memory loss
 * Mouth, genital, or anal sores from [|herpes] infections. (Webmd.com)

Signs that can be symptoms of AIDS are, A person can live with the disease for many years and not even realize it, making it more life threatening when it is diagnosed.
 * [|Cough] and shortness of breath
 * Seizures and lack of coordination
 * Difficult or painful swallowing
 * Mental symptoms such as confusion and forgetfulness
 * Severe and persistent diarrhea
 * Fever
 * Vision loss
 * Nausea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting
 * Weight loss and extreme fatigue
 * Severe [|headaches] with neck stiffness
 * Coma
 * Or Kaposi sarcoma, and cervical cancers (Webmd.com)

There are many different ways to get tested them being
 * EIA or ELISA Tests- Most common and can either take a few days to a couple of weeks to get the results
 * Western Blot- This is the test you take after the EIA or ELISA to confirm you're infected if the previous test came out positive and if this one also is positive than you have the disease.
 * Rapid Tests- This test is just as accurate as the EIA and only take 20 minutes to get the results back.
 * At Home Tests- Is much like taking a diabetes test and can be bought over the counter. You send your blood into a laboratory where it is tested and takes about a week to get your results. (StevenDowshen)

=How to Prevent Yourself from Getting Infected=
 * Don't have unprotected sex, use a condom
 * Make sure you and your partner are both not currently infected, and don't have sex with strangers
 * Never share needles with another person
 * Make sure not to share blood of have contact with someone else's blood, cover open wounds (StevenDowshen)

**__Source Annotation__**
 * Source: And the Band Played On**
 * Summary: This source has information based on what they knew back a few years after the epidemic started, so its in the mind of someone mad at the matter it seems.
 * Assess: The information to me is old and could use an update but it really explains the feelings of people back when the disease became a problem.
 * Reflect: I might use this information to tell how the disease first started because I think it really does a good job of doing that.

Source: []

 * Summary: This gives basic statistics, and has more basic information about where, what, how, when, and why.
 * Assess: Good information, and lots of it.
 * Reflect: Anything you need to know and more.

website:__ http://www.avert.org/aids.htm __

 * **summary:** Okay so I think this website gave good detail on what the symptoms, causes, cures, deaths and treatments about aids and has good detail on all of them and goes into really good depth.
 * Assess: The info. was good and FULL of detail and had some good links/ Hyperlinks tagged along with it,
 * Reflect: I would use this to get a good, solid background on AIDS and HIV

Source: Glencoe Health book

 * Summary: This health book provides really basic information on how you can get it, what it is, treatment, who can get it, etc.
 * Assess: It is in partnership with Time Health and Buisinessweek. Our school uses it, but the section about HIV/AIDS is pretty small.

Source: HIV/AIDS book

 * Summary: This book gave everything from the basics of HIV/AIDS to how many people are affected by it, and how they got to be affected to the ages, and even welfare on AIDS and HIV.
 * Assess: I think that this information is very good, and true. The book was put out by scientists and it all seemed to be true once I checked my information on the internet.
 * Reflect: I do not think I have any more question that the book didn't answer. It was just a huge book so I didn't get the chance to read the whole thing.
 * Source: http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/stds/hiv_tests.html?tracking=T_RelatedArticle#**
 * Summary: The source provides a well written article on the main facts of HIV and AIDS. It's very easy to find information you're looking for because each section is titled as to what it will be about.
 * Assess: The information seems accurate based on prior knowledge, and it puts the whole subject in an easier way to understand, so maybe this is suppose to be for a younger audience.
 * Reflect: I might use this source for getting good information and being able to put it in a easy way for everyone to understand what I'm saying, because some websites can be highly confusing when they start using the big words.

Source: []

 * Summary: This provides a lot of information like how HIV/AIDS spreads, the history of it, when it was discovered, symptoms, signs, different tests, and more basic information. To be more specific, it talks about the future for HIV/AIDS infected individuals, treatment for pregnant women, the effects of therapy, what happens if you miss your doses or stop taking them, Etc.
 * Assess: It says a lot of good information, and explains things like a doctor would. It's also operated by WebMD which is a legit corporation and has a good reputation. It's even in the stock market.
 * Reflect: Basic information and more. What's the history of HIV/AIDS? When was it discovered? Who does it effect? What is the future of the prevention of this disease?

**Source: __[]__ **
 * Summary:This article told a story of what it would be like to live in Africa and have AIDS/HIV, and how devistating it would be.
 * Assess: I'm sure that this article has truthful and good information, it is put out by "Times" and CNN.
 * Reflect: This article made me ask myself how can we let this go on? There is so much death and we don't try hard to stop it.


 * Source: http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/guide/getting-an-hiv-test**
 * Summary: This source has very good facts on each area of HIV and AIDS but is a little confusing to find my way around, and get the facts I want.
 * Assess: They really seem to know what they're talking about whoever wrote this but they put their words in a way thats kind of hard to understand.
 * Reflect: I might use this information to list different symptoms of HIV and AIDS and information similar to that.

=__Reflections and Conclusions__=

I think that the epidemic for HIV/AIDS is very terrible, although it doesn't affect Americans as much as in Africa. I think because of the lack of knowledge and health aid in africa, people there just get infected too easily. Also, nobody really thinks about the HIV/AIDS epidemic because it probably doesn't affect them. And now that people can pretty much live a normal life and live with HIV/AIDS, people might not worry so much, but it is still a growing problem and more and more people are infected daily. But when will there be a cure, if ever? What are we going to do about the epidemic in Africa? Questions still to be answered.

__Reflect:__ __I still want to know more of everything involving kids.__

Reflections and Connections: From reading this section I relized how bad deseases are in Africa and got me really concerned because its not just adaults effected by it, kids are too! I just think its craazzzyyy the amount of people effected with the popular desease.

I think the subject of AIDS and HIV is very disturbing and sad, to think of all the people infected and all the people who have lost their lives because of the disease. Its important we find a cure soon and is pitiful that we haven’t found a cure yet, to a infection thats infected so many people all throughout the world. This assignment was definitely an eye opener for me and my opinion on the subject. It made me realize how many people need help because its affecting them and how the spread needs to stop. A question that was finally answered was when this all first started, the epidemic and everything, because I didn’t realize before that it really didn’t start that long ago only about 30 years or so ago and I think we’ve come a long way since then. I’m still wondering where it all originated? I’ve heard the disease started with a monkey in Africa but none of the sources I used said this, so I’m still a little curious on that.

=__Multimedia__=

There's no cure, But we can stop the spread. This is a CD4 cell. __ [] __ media type="youtube" key="bhLWbnZ6fQg?rel=0" height="349" width="425" AIDS is a problem all over the world, but the place that gets hit the worst is Africa.

media type="youtube" key="UXMli0OVCXc" width="425" height="350" Tells the number of people with AIDS around the world. =__Works Cited__=

Avert.org. Avert. Electronic. May 11, 2011.

Bronson, Mary. Glencoe Health. Mcgraw-hill comp. Woodland hills, CA. 2009. Print.

Hayle, Brian. AIDS/HIV. Gale Group Inc. Farmington Hills. 2004. Print.

Jay Marks, Eric Daar. Medicinenet.com. Electronic. May 10, 2011.

Shilts, Randy. //And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic//. New York: St. Martin's, 1987. Print.

StevenDowshen. Kidshealth.org. Nemours. August 2009, May 24, 2011

Webmd.com. WebMD. 2005. May 22, 2011