AIDS

El SIDA (acrónimo de síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida), es una enfermedad que afecta a las personas que han sido infectadas por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH). Se dice que alguien padece de sida cuando su organismo, debido a la inmunodeficiencia provocada por el VIH, no es capaz de ofrecer una respuesta inmune adecuada contra las infecciones.

Current knowledge of the disease:


The HIV is related to other viruses that cause AIDS-like disease. It is believed that this virus was transferred from animals to humans in the early twentieth century. There are two different viruses causing AIDS in humans, HIV-1 and HIV-2. The first reservoir species are chimpanzees, whose virus itself, the SIVcpz, is derived. HIV-2 derived from the SIVsm, typical of a species of monkey in West Africa. In both cases the interspecies transmission has occurred several times, but the current pandemic is extension of the group M HIV-1, as estimated from an infection in Central Africa, where the virus expresses the maximum diversity in the first half of the twentieth century.The current pandemic began in Central Africa, but went unnoticed until it began to affect people in rich countries, where AIDS immunosuppression could not be easily confused with impoverishment due to other causes, especially for medical systems and disease control well resourced. The earliest human sample known to contain HIV was taken in 1959 to a British sailor who apparently contracted it in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other samples containing the virus were found in an American man who died in 1969 and in 1976 a Norwegian sailor. It is believed that the virus was infected through sexual activity, possibly through prostitutes in urban areas of Africa. As the first infected traveled the world, were carrying the disease to several cities on different continents.Currently, the most common way that HIV is transmitted is through unprotected sexual activity and needle sharing among injecting drug users. The virus can be transmitted from a pregnant mother to her child (vertical transmission). In the past also spread AIDS through blood transfusions and the use of derived products for the treatment of hemophilia or sharing of unsterilized medical equipment, but now this happens very rarely, except the ultimate in poor regions, because the checks on these products.Not all patients infected with HIV have AIDS. The criterion for diagnosing AIDS can vary from region to region, but the diagnosis typically requires:An absolute count of CD4 T cells below 200 per cubic millimeter, orThe presence of any of the typical opportunistic infections, caused by agents unable to cause disease in healthy people.The person infected with HIV is called 'HIV positive' or 'HIV positive' (HIV +) and uninfected are called "seronegative" or "HIV negative" (HIV-). Most people with HIV do not know they are.The primary HIV infection is called "seroconversion" and may be accompanied by a series of nonspecific symptoms like the flu, for example, fever, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. At this stage the transmitter is more infected than any other stage of the disease, since the amount of virus in your body is higher than achieved. This is because not yet fully developed immune response of the host. Not all newly infected with HIV suffer from these symptoms and eventually all individuals become asymptomatic.

Countirs affected by the AIDS.

By Pedro and Martin.