In my paper regarding communicable diseases I choose to discus HIV/AIDS. In this paper I will discuss HIV, and the different ways HIV is transmitted, to the many complications that are associated with HIV, and discuss how community health nurses can help patients develop a plan for managing the disease process. I will also refer to an agency that can help nurses gather data they need to treat patients physically, and emotionally, as well as resources for patients to refer to when they feel like they need questions answered to their questions. According to (AIDS.GOV) “HIV” stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. I will discuss what each letter represents: H – Human – This virus can only infect human beings. I – Immunodeficiency – HIV weakens your immune system by killing off vital cells that help fight the disease and infection. A weakened immune system cannot protect the host or human like it should be able to. V – Virus – A virus can only replicate over and over by invading a cell within the body of its host. HIV is similar to other viruses, such as the flu or the common cold. The biggest difference is that in time, our immune system can destroy most of the viruses in our bodies. With HIV the body’s immune system can't eradicate the virus. In turn once a patient is diagnosed with HIV they have it for the rest of their natural life. Like many viruses, HIV can lay dormant for extended periods of time in the cells of your body that attacks a key part of your immune system, the persons T-cells are the cells that send signals to the immune system to activate and warn them that there are intruders. These cells located within the human body to fight infections and disease, but HIV invades them, uses them to make duplicates of them and once that process is complete it then destroys them.
According to the (mayo clinic, 2014) scientists believed that a form of HIV in