Aids: Epidemic Of The Decade
...supporting facts and data, visiting urban cities and third world countries prove this point. Furthermore, AIDS is not only highly infectious, it is also the first major incurable epidemic throughout this biomedical revolution that mankind is going through. This epidemic might actually be the one that will completely wipeout the third world. Scientists, government agencies and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to find a cure to this epidemic but in the mean time we have to find a way to deal with it, if possible. As we continue into the next millennium with all sorts of problems facing humanity, the choice with regard to AIDS is simple, evolve or die!
INFECTIVITY
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has two different types of strains. HIV-1 is the North American strain while HIV-2 is the African strain. The only real difference between the two is that HIV-2 has the vpx gene while HIV-1 does not. As you can tell by the name, the virus works by gradually deteriorating the immune system. The virus can infect any cell with CD4 molecules on the cell's membrane. It seems to specifically destroy or disable the CD4+ T cells. These cells are sometimes called "T helper" cells. They work by signalling other cells to perform their special functions. A normal healthy person usually has a CD4+ T cell count of 800 to 1,200 per cubic millimetre of blood. Once a person's CD4+ T cell count falls below 200/mm3, a person is diagnosed with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). A person diagnosed with AIDS will usually die of an opportunistic infection, not of HIV/AIDS itself.
HIV is a virus and a virus is basically a microscopic bag of protein filled with a strain of DNA or RNA. To be more specific, HIV has a diameter of approximately 1/10,000 of a millimetre and is spherical in shape (see Figure 1-1). The viral envelope consists of two layers of lipid molecules and...
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