Wikipedia:WikiProject AIDS/Sample

in preparation a sample article to give other Wikipedians a feel for the project's goals

Aids (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, sometimes written AIDS) has been defined by the Centers for Disease Control has as beginning when a person with HIV infection has a CD4 cell (also called "t-cell", a type of immune cell) count below 200. It is also defined by numerous opportunistic infections, which are infections that do not normally develop in a person with a healthy immune system.

There is no cure for Aids at this time. However, several treatments are available that can delay the progression of disease for many years and improve the quality of life of those who have developed symptoms. There is good evidence that if the levels of HIV remain suppressed and the CD4 count remains greater than 200, then life and quality of life can be significantly prolonged and improved.

Defining AIDS

AIDS was first reported as opportunistic infections among gay male intravenous drug users in the 1980s and called GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficency). Similar opportunisitic infections were reported in men with haemophilia and men from Haiti.

In April 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced to the world at a press conference that an American scientist, Dr. Robert Gallo, had discovered the probable cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome AIDS: the retrovirus subsequently named Human Immunodeficiency Virus HIV.

In October 1985, a conference of public health officials including representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organisation met in Bangui and defined AIDS in Africa as, "prolonged fevers for a month or more, weight loss of over 10% and prolonged diarrhoea".

Based on the Bangui definition the WHO's cumulative number of AIDS cases from 1980 through 1997 for all of Africa was 620,000. source Table 79 on page 146 of The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Health Sector: National Survey of Health Personnel, Ambulatory and Hospitalised Patients and Health Facilities 2002. For comparison, the cumulative total of AIDS cases in the USA through 1997 was 641,087.

Eaach year new Aids cases are reported around the world in men, women and children.

HIV infection

The acronym HIV has been used since 1986 for for 'human immunodeficiency virus', a retrovirus that was first proposed as the cause of Aids by Luc Montagnier of France, who caled it Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus (LAV) and Robert Gallo of the United States, who called it Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type III (HTLV-III).

Transmission of HIV

HIV is transmitted through penetrative (anal or vaginal) and oral sex, blood transfusion, the sharing of contaminated needles in health care settings or drug injection, and between mother and infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. UNAIDS transmison

WHO estimated in 2000, between 15% and 20% of new HIV infections worldwide were the result of blood transfusions, where the donors were not screened or inadequately screened for HIV.

There is no evidence that HIV can be transmitted through hugging, shaking hands or other simple physical contact where there was no bleeding involved - including contact with carrier's sweat. There is no evidence that HIV can be spread through vectors such as mosquitoes.

Treatment of HIV infection

HIV is a chronic medical condition that can be treated, but not yet cured. There are effective means of preventing complications and delaying, but not preventing, progression to Aids.

People with HIV infection need to receive education about the disease and treatment so that they can be active partners in decision making with their health care provider.

Treatment guidelines are changing constantly. The current guidelines for antiretroviral therapy from the World Health Organization reflect the 2004 changes to the guidleines to defer retroviral treatment in patients with no symptoms who have more than 350 T-cells and viral load under 100,000.

I ask those who urge me to take medications to wait at least until I have regained enough strength to enable me to stand the effort and the risk. Michel de Montaigne 1533-1592

HIV research

In 1996, Robert Gallo's discovery that a natural compound known as chemokines can block HIV and halt the progression of Aids was hailed by Science magazine as one of that year's most important scientific breakthroughs. reference