1. AIDS: Research
By Ghinna Fondinka

2. Description Of AIDS
This is the late stage of a spectrum of conditions or infections.
It is caused by HIV(Human Immunodeficiency Virus)
There are three main ways in which this disease can be transmitted to other people
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
There is no known cure.
Lets look at the methods of transmission in detail:

3. Description Of AIDS

4. Method 1: Sexual Contact
This is the most frequent method of transmission
Originally, people thought that this disease was transmitted with only homosexuals, but was discovered to be transmitted by unprotected sex
The risk of transmission is also higher in the presence of many sexually transmitted infections and genital ulcers
Commercial sex workers, rough sex, and sexual assaults are factors that have an increased chance of AIDS

5. Method 2: Body Fluids
This transmission is mainly due to blood and blood products
It is less frequent than sexual contact
This can be through needle use during intravenous drug use, transfusion of contaminated blood, or use of unsterilized equipment during drug infection
About 93% of blood transfusions using infected blood makes HIV highly transmissible.

6. Method 3: Mother-to-child
This is the least frequent method of transmission
HIV can be transmitted from a mother to a child either during pregnancy, delivery, or through breast milk
However, with appropriate treatment the possibility of transmission is extremely low.
Even though it isn't frequent, it’s still possible.

7. Methods Of Transmission

8. Signs And Symptoms Signs and symptoms of this disease include:
Acute Infections such as:
Fever
Throat inflammation
Rashes
Headache
Influenza like illness
Swollen lymph nodes
Other signs and symptoms include
Pneumocystis pneumonia
Cachexia
Cancer
Kaposi’s sarcoma
Conjunctival cancer
Prolonged fevers
Night sweats
Weight loss
Diarrhea

9. Symptoms & Signs

10. Prognosis Over the years, AIDS has become a more chronic disease
It varies between people
Without treatment, the average survival time for a person is 9 to 11 years. However, it depends on the HIV type.
After AIDS has been diagnosed, without treatment, the victim can survive between 6 to 19 months
However appropriate prevention of opportunistic infections increases survival by 80%
Therefore it raises life expectancy from 20 to 50 years
However, if the treatment is started late, the outcome may not be as good
In summary, if treatment is not done earlier after diagnosis, the patient may not live as long

11. Prognosis

12. Effect Of AIDS Education
Education has been identified has a common, social vaccine against AIDS
Effective AIDS education has prevented new infections and equipped individuals with knowledge to protect themselves against AIDS
This is done by providing people with information about AIDS and how it is transmitted
This education is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT because AIDS has affected so many parts of the society and so everybody has to be aware of this disease

13. Standard Precautions
These are a series of infection control practices used to prevent transmission of diseases that can be acquired by contact
They include:
Hand Hygiene: To prevent contact of contaminated AIDS blood
Cleaning and Disinfection: Always be clean and sterilize needles before use
Personal Protection Equipment: Abstain from unprotected sex
Needlestick and Sharp Injury Prevention: Always keep away from sharp objects