EVIDENCE BASED RESEARCH

Evidence based research

Evidence based research

Introduction

The HIV and AIDS disease has been around for awhile although no one has been able to pin point it's origin. There are many theories floating around the medical world but the most predominant theory “is that the virus first attacked humans in Central Africa up to 100 years ago.” (Ezzo 2001). It is said that the virus stayed mainly in this closed society until many years later. Many say the disease spread when international travel began to increase. The HIV and AIDS viruses were believed to arrive in the United States sometime during the nineteen seventies. It was a common disease between gay males and intravenous drug abusers. Now it is well known that the viruses have been transmitted through sexually, occasionally through blood and organ transplants.

The acronym HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, where as the acronym AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. When someone has contracted the HIV virus in almost all cases it produces the AIDS virus. Apparently there has been a controversy that HIV really isn't the cause of the AIDS virus, but careful research has proved without a doubt that it is the cause. Socially the production of the viruses has caused a lot of hate, prejudice, racism and above all homophobia.

Body: Discussion and Analysis

Many people only talk about the late stages of AIDS but HIV does not always produce the AIDS virus. If the HIV virus is caught in the early stages it is possible to get treatment and delay the effects of the AIDS virus. When an individual contracts HIV they can expect a fever, swollen glands, and sometimes a rash. As the bodies system tends toward these symptoms the HIV virus may still be undetectable. This first stage is called primary HIV disease then moves onto chronic asymptomatic disease. With this stage comes a decline in the immune cells and often swollen lymph nodes. As time moves on the depletion of immune cells increases leaving the body open to opportunistic infection. This is where normal sickness, disease, and other things in the environment are now able to attack the bodies system. This stage is called the chronic symptomatic disease. A very noticeable symptom is a thrush, which “is a yeast infection of the mouth…”(Gorna, 1996). Also at this stage there can be infections of the skin and also feelings of fatigue, weight loss, diarrhea, etc.

The actual period of the HIV virus really varies from person to person. Normally with in a year or two the serve stages of HIV set in. At this point in the victims life it is said they have progressed into the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This status is established when one or more of diseases have accumulated in the effected victims system. Many victims often have lesions appear on their skin or they begin to acquire a pneumocystic pneumonia. The final stage of the virus attacks the nervous system, “damaging the brain and the spinal ...