Thursday, November 12, 2009

AIDS - A Cause of Unprotected Sex


Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is known as AIDS in the short form. AIDS is in fact the collection of certain symptoms and infections in the human organism which permanently leads to the damage of the human immune system. AIDS is in other ways considered as the body's defense system which hampers the normal functioning of the body organs to a great extent. The basic cause of AIDS is the two types of viruses, namely the HIV 1 and the HIV 2. Basically these two types of viruses are thus responsible in the performance of the defense mechanism system of the body.

The most common cause of AIDS is considered to be the unprotected sex. Sex without taking proper precaution like condom is very much responsible for AIDS. AIDS is generally transmitted through the semen. It is estimated that more than three million people round the globe had died through AIDS. During the prenatal stage also it is found that the mother will transmit the disease to the fetus before it is born. AIDS is transferred to the blood through the means of transfusion of blood into another's body cell. Besides these, AIDS can also be caused through the use of injections which are not properly sterilized in the process of taking drugs or blood into the veins.

Symptoms of AIDS are not visible at the early stage. But at least after a period of 3 to 6 weeks the symptoms of AIDS can be noticed through certain flu like sickness. Besides these, symptoms like headache, nausea, fever, fatigue, diarrhea, etc. are also considered as other AIDS symptoms. But it can be mentioned out here though these symptoms occur in an AIDS patient; it lasts for only a temporary period of time after which it disappears. Sometimes acute AIDS symptoms also cannot be considered as the symptoms of AIDS, as they may also be found to be very much common to other forms of diseases. Thus symptoms either mild or severe cannot be considered as solely the symptoms of AIDS as other forms of sickness or diseases also witness the similar symptoms. But however, when the disease reaches its critical stage, the symptoms become very much acute thus leading to loss of weight, recurrent fever and also occurrence of certain fatal diseases. AIDS thus totally destroys the immune system of the body totally. AIDS is thus a deadly disease which is the result of unprotected sex, hence to prevent it is to avoid unprotected sex.

Symptoms of HIV:

The first stage of the infection is called the 'primary HIV infection'. The persons infected by this virus, about more than half of the people develop the symptoms, generally in about 15 to 45 days of the infection. The symptoms would comprise of pain in the joints, fever, muscle pain, sore throat, and swelling in the glands, getting tired out faster than usual and appearance of a spotty rash on the chest.

Generally the symptoms are quite mild and you would tend to link them to some other problem like fever or cold. These symptoms do not show any increment for a long period. This is called 'Asymptomatic HIV infection'.

This virus is internally growing and even damaging the immune system. If the virus is left and not treated, it in turn will bring down the number of the CD4 cells in the body to a very low level and this would cause the immune system to stop functioning. This damage caused to the immune system generally happening in over a period of ten years. This in turn would inexorably result in growing into a severe infection.

The symptoms of a severe infection would be, night sweats, dry cough, inexplicable loss of weight, high fever which would be enduringly long, vision would start getting blur, the mouth or the tongue would develop white spots, shortness in breath, constant diarrhea or even glands tend to swell up and this condition would continue for three or more months.

Treatment of HIV:
The first step would be getting referred to a HIV clinic and getting counseled. Then blood tests would be done regularly, these tests would be to keep a check on the viral load and the CD4 cell count. There is no vaccine or medication available which can cure HIV completely. But there are medications like HEART available in order to slow down the speed of the virus and also giving you a longer life span.