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) was defined by the Centers for Disease Control in 1993  Administrator note as beginning when a person with HIV infection has either a CD4 cell count below 200 or one of numerous opportunistic infections, which 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.

Discovering Aids

Aids was first reported as a cluster of Pneumocystis pneumonia in five gay male drug users in Los Angeles in 1981  Administrator note and called Grid (Gay Related Immune Deficency). Similar opportunisitic infections were reported in men with haemophilia, intravenous heroin users, and men from Haiti.

In April 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced at a press conference that an American scientist, Dr. Robert Gallo, had discovered the probable cause of Aids: the retrovirus subsequently named Human Immunodeficiency Virus or 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.

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

Symptoms of Aids

The first symptoms of Aids are opportunistic infections, that do not normally develop in a person with a healthy immune system. A person, who has been exposed to HIV is encouraged to have an HIV test, so that the health of their immune system can be monitored and antiretroviral medication offered before their CD4 count is less than 200.

The time from infection with HIV to a diagnosis of Aids varies. Individuals who have been living with HIV for at least 7 to 12 years and have stable CD4+ T cell counts of 600 or more cells per cubic millimeter of blood, no HIV-related diseases, and no previous antiretroviral medication are called long-term nonprogressors.

HIV infection

The acronym HIV has been used since 1986 for 'human immunodeficiency virus', a retrovirus that was first proposed as the cause of Aids by Luc Montagnier of France, who named it Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus (LAV) and Robert Gallo of the United States, who named 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

Footnotes

These footnotes use automatic footnote numbering

1. Template:Anb Centers for Disease Control. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Recommendations and Reports, December 18, 1992. See also analysis of this expanded definiton
2. Template:Anb Centers for Disease Control. 1981. Pneumocystis pneumonia- Los Angeles. MMWR 30 (21):250­252.