AIDS was identified in the year 1981. Since then more than 30 million people have died from the disease and an estimated 1.8 million people have been affected globally in 2010, according to Avert, an international HIV and AIDS foundation based in the United Kingdom.
Children need to be informed to protect themselves from this life threatening disease. They need to have sessions based on the deadly virus, HIV. Most often, the virus is acquired sexually. HIV can also be transmitted by sharing a needle with someone who is infected or through pregnancy and delivery, if the mother is HIV infected. As was feared earlier, blood transfusion does not transmit HIV, as the current supply is carefully screened, making the risk very low.
Use of condoms can prevent many infections, according to Chakraborty. According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, two-thirds of people with HIV in America acquire infection during sexual intercourse with an infected partner.
A blood test for HIV detects the presence of antibodies. If antibodies are present in the blood, the person is considered HIV-positive and likely to have HIV infection. HIV infected body attempts to fight the infection nu making antibodies, according to Chakraborty.
AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. As the advocacy group, AIDS.org explains: Acquired Immune Deficiency is a weakness in the body’s system that fights diseases, and syndrome is a group of health problems that make up a disease.
HIV positive people do not become sick immediately on contracting the virus. For several years the virus remains in the body and as years pass by, the disease continues and slowly wears down the immune system.
Being HIV-positive is not the same as having AIDS. Many HIV-positive people don’t become sick for several years. But as the disease continues, it slowly wears down the immune system. The medications – antiretroviral drugs only delay the onset of AIDS as there is no cure for same. Many of the HIV positive people do not know they are infected, as they do not go for HIV blood test.
According to the Times (July 2012 edition), “Of the estimated 1.1 million HIV-infected people in the United States, an estimated 800,000 are not fully engaged in their care, finding it inconvenient or unavailable or opt out of it altogether since they say they don’t feel sick (though when tested, their immune systems fail miserably).”
