This is the big one. ‘AIDS’ stands for ‘Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome’, and HIV is the name of the bug which causes the disease: ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus’. If this book had been written fifteen years ago, AIDS would not have even rated a mention, because as far as we knew, it didn’t exist. It has, unfortunately, made its presence felt in no uncertain terms.

One reason that HIV has made such an impact on our lives is that it kills people. Infection may not cause symptoms initially, but there is, at the moment, a 100 per cent death rate among infected people, although the time between infection and death may be relatively long. In some studies in developed countries, only 50 to 60 per cent of infected people have become ill after ten years. Treatments have been found, and are still being developed to increase the length of time an infected person remains well. It is hoped that an effective treatment may one day change the course of this disease. Until then we can only hope to beat it by preventing its spread, relieving the suffering of the people it affects, and continuing to look for an effective cure.

The disease was first noticed in the early 1980s. In Australia and the United states it was initially predominantly found in homosexual and bisexual men (and they still account for the majority of infected people in Australia), intravenous drug users (the second biggest group here), and people who had been given infected blood and blood products. (This was before the Blood Bank knew about it. Now all blood is screened before being given, and the risk of getting infected blood is considered minuscule.) The disease has spread to varying degrees in different populations. In some developing nations, for example in parts of Africa and Asia, the rate of HIV infection among the general population is alarmingly high; men, women and children are infected in enormous numbers, and the proportion is increasing. This illustrates that the virus has the ability to be spread through heterosexual intercourse (the main route of transmission world-wide), and poses a great threat if we do not change our patterns of behaviour. The routes by which the virus is spread are:

• sex. It is in semen and vaginal secretions.

• blood and blood products. This includes sharing intravenous needles and syringes, as they are contaminated with blood.

• from a mother to a baby, either during pregnancy or childbirth.

Many people are concerned that traces of the virus have been reported in saliva (spit), but it appears that the amount is so small that it would take a bucketful, literally, to transmit the virus (and it is not often that one sees a bucketful of spit, fortunately). The possibility exists that it may also be found in breast milk. There is no evidence that it is spread though non-sexual social contact, like touching, kissing, sharing cups, etc.

The virus can be spread through oral, vaginal or anal intercourse. The skin can act as a weak barrier to transmission of the bugs, but microscopic breaks and small cuts in the skin can speed up transmission, and make it easiest for the bugs to get through. This is why more physically traumatic intercourse, like anal intercourse, is thought to spread the virus so well. Similarly, if there are other infections around which have helped to break down the skin’s barrier, like ulcers or sores in the genital region (like herpes or syphilis) or cervical infections (like chlamydia and gonorrhoea), the rate of transmission is probably higher. This may contribute to the very rapid transmission rate in developing countries and communities where heterosexual spread is more apparent than in developed societies to date. The rate of all sexually transmitted diseases is higher in underprivileged communities, and AIDS in particular is sweeping through parts of Africa with ferocity.

HIV causes damage by affecting the body’s immune (infection- and cancer-fighting) mechanisms. This means that the person who carries the virus will eventually lose the natural defence mechanisms which ward off disease. This leaves the person susceptible to other bacterial, fungal and viral infections and some cancers, one or more of which will eventually lead to death.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:17 am and is filed under Women's Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.