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What is AIDS ?
AIDS is a life-threatening and chronic condition cause by the (HIV) Human immunodeficiency virus. It damages the immune system and interferes with the body’s ability to fight bacteria, virus and fungi.
Do you Know ?Worldwide there are 33.4 million people living with HIV |
How to Control and Prevent AIDS ?
There are two basic approaches to the control of AIDS.
1) Education:
Until a cure or vaccine for aids comes into existence, the only means at present available is health education to enable people to make life-saving choices (e.g. using condoms and avoiding indiscriminate sex).
There is, however no 100% guarantee that the use of condoms will provide complete protection.
Should avoid the use of shared toothbrushes and razors.
Must inform the Intravenous drug users that the sharing of needles and syringes involves special risk.
Women those who are suffering from AIDS and high risk of infection should avoid becoming pregnant, because infection can be transmitted to the unborn or new born.
Guidelines and educational material for control and prevention must be made widely available.
All mass media channels like news papers and televisions should be involved in educating the people on AIDS, its nature, prevention and transmission; this also includes international travelers.
| Most Common Ways of getting HIV |
| By injecting drugs using a syringe/needle which has been already used by and infected person. Participating in unprotected sex with a HIV infected person. It can pass to a baby during pregnancy, or through breastfeeding |
| You cannot get HIV from |
| Hugging or touching somebody who has HIV/AIDS. Swimming pools and Public bathrooms. Sharing utensils, telephones or cups with a person having HIV/AIDS. Insect or Bug bites. |
2) Prevention of blood-borne HIV transmission:
People who are in high-risk groups should be urged to refrain from donating the blood, sperm, body organs or other tissues.
All blood should be screened for HIV 2 and HIV 1 before transfusion.
Strict sterilization practices should be ensured in clinics and hospitals.
Disposable needles and syringes must be used as far as possible.
Common Myths about Care and HIV Medications |
| Myth: Current drugs and medications can cure AIDS (HIV). Nothing to worry if infected from HIV.Fact: Present day medications have reduced the death rate by about 80%. They are also easier to take than they used to be. But they are still having side effects and are too expensive. They have to be taken daily for the rest of life. If missed too many drug doses, it can develop the resistance to medications you take and will they stop working in treating the AIDS. |
| Myth: Present HIV drugs are so powerful and strong that you can stop receiving them (take drug holiday) without any problems.Fact: Well, we all know that first aids drugs were developed a long back. But then they were never so in demand mainly because people thought that they are likely to be full of side effects and more interestingly most of them refrained themselves from believing that they had anything like AIDS. These and many others factors led to the growth of this disease. Studies showed that if there were “treatment interruptions” followed by ARVs stoppage, then it caused more problems often resulting in severe consequences like giving the virus a chance to multiply or your count of CD4 cells could drop, a sign of immune damage. |
| Myth: A person can’t transmit HIV when he is being treated with antiretroviral therapies.Fact: Drugs do not prevent the disease from spreading. They are just meant to keep the strength of the disease at bay. |
| In today’s world, many people are living with HIV without even knowing that they have been infected. If you are unsure that you are infected with the HIV virus, you should go for a HIV test as soon as possible. |
| HIV is evading all mankind’s efforts to make a vaccine against it inspite of us knowing its entire mechanism. The catchy here is the virus can change the way it looks to our immune system very fast. So no vaccine produced can begin its action faster than its changes its appearance. |
| Designing a vaccine to combat HIV requires immense intellectual leaps that are beyond current level of knowledge and understanding. We would love to hear your thoughts on AIDS prevention and control. If you have an input to share, please comment here or contact us through this contact form. |
 Instead of avoiding people who’ve got AIDS, you should treat them with respect and care.”It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance.” ~ Elizabeth TaylorIts high time we join hands and get together to fight against AIDS! |
