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Pedro Chazarra
Mrs. Johnson
English
10/08/2012
HIV/AIDS
This world has been stricken by many major diseases during its history, which has spread worldwide devastating entire families and even communities. These major worldwide infections are Pandemics. There have been several pandemics in the world; they had caused much damage to the society by risking people’s lives and causing many deaths.First let’s begin with the definition of pandemic; a pandemic can be defined as "An epidemic occurring worldwide or over a very wide area, going international, and affecting a large number of people and it is infectious and contagious. It’s a widespread endemic disease that is spread worldwide affecting people’s health. There have been many pandemics in the world, seven are the most known. Alsomany diseases were spread worldwide causing deaths but they were not considered pandemic because they didn’t meet the requirements of the World Health Organization. (WHO 3)
The World Health Organization (WHO) produces a six-stage classification that describes the process by which a virus moves from the first few infections in humans to a pandemic. This starts with the virus infecting animals, witha few cases where animals are who infect people, then moves through the stage where the virus begins to spread directly between people, and ends with a pandemic when infections from the new virus have spread worldwide. A disease is not a pandemic because it is widespread or kills many people; it must be infectious. For example, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered apandemic because the disease is not infectious or contagious. (WHO 4)
During history there has been many pandemic and epidemic diseases, some of the most known are; HIV/AIDS, Cholera, Influenza, Typhus, Smallpox, Tuberculosis, Malaria between others. For this research I had choose HIV/AIDS because it’s a pandemic virus which has caused many deaths and it’s still affecting people lives. What is HIV?  How do you get it?   Do I have it?   These are questions many people are asking themselves. First When AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome started, no one could have known how the pandemic would spread across the world and how people’s lives it would change. There was no real idea what caused it and no real idea how to protect against it. Now in days our society knows from a harsh experiencethat HIV is the cause of AIDS and is its leading cause. It can destroy families, communities and whole countries. HIV has become the first 'international' pandemic, easily crossing oceans and borders in the history. (Cohen, MS; Hellmann, N; Levy, JA; DeCock, K; Lange 2)
HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a lent virus, and like all viruses of this type, it attacks the immune system toweaken or slow it down, leaving it much more unprotected to diseases. The name 'lent virus' literally means 'slow virus' because they take such a long time to produce any bad effects in the body.  During the initial infection a person may experience a period of influenza-like illness. This is typically followed by a long period without symptoms. As the illness progresses it reacts more and more withthe immune system, making people much more likely to get infections, including tumors that only affect people with bad or damage immune system. One of the main questions people ask is “How do you get it?” HIV is transmitted primarily via unprotected sexual intercourse, contaminated blood transfusions . HIV also can be transfer from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Somebodily fluids, like saliva and tears, do not transmit HIV. (Cohen, MS; Hellmann, N; Levy, JA; DeCock, K; Lange 6)
Unprotected sexual intercourse with someone already having HIV has been the most of the cases of HIV infections worldwide, the second most frequent mode of HIV transmission or infection is via blood and blood products.  Blood transmission can be through needle-sharing during...