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Hiv/Aids

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HIV/ AIDS What is AIDS ?
It is a pandemic disease. AIDS cannot be compared to disease like malaria and cholera which claim more live in country currently. It has a greater impact than other disease. The treatment options are still in the initial stages and are prohibitively expensive. There are instances of quacks taking advantage of the situation. This has compounded the misery of AIDS patients.
History of HIV AIDS:
It was first noticed in USA in 1981. The American and French scientist independently identified the AIDS virus 1984. The virus first named as HCLV III ( Human cell leukemia virus III). The name (Human cell leukemia deficiency virus) is now preferred. It now seems that HIV first passed into human from chimpanzees by eating butchered chimps. 10% of the people, who get AIDS virus infection, actually develop full blown AIDS.
Causes of HIV/AIDS HIV is a retrovirus capable of rapid mutation that produces a latent infection that develops over a long period. To infect a human, HIV must attach to specific host cells known as CD4 cells, which are responsible for regulating the immune system. Once it has occupied a host cell, the virus copies the DNA of the cell, rendering it invisible to the body's defense system. The virus replicates itself within the cells, producing numerous virus particles that bud from the surface of the cell, destroying the cell and moving on to attach to another CD4 cell. For several weeks or months after initial infection the patient is highly infectious, although HIV testing will not reveal the patient's positive status. After this initial period, which is known as the window period, the virus incubates, destroying many CD4 cells but being fended off by the immune system. Some two million CD4 cells are destroyed each day by some ten billion newly produced virus particles. The incubation period for HIV is quite long,

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