AIDS Prevention

AIDS. The very sound of the word scares some, and makes other cringe. How did we let it get so far? There is no cure for very few diseases, and aids is one of them. Yet we still have unprotected sex, and we still share dirty needles. Come on! Granted, HIV/AIDS will never be a thing of the past, but we can do better in making the condition less common.

HIV/AIDS kills. In 2004, it was responsible for 3.5 million deaths globally. Thats not even the worst of it. 6.4 million people newly contracted the virus in the same year! Instead of diminishing the deadly condition, we are multiplying it. This needs to stop. It’s as if 3.5 million wasn’t enough dead in 2004, so we decided to boost the numbers for 2005. What are we thinking?!

Mothers can share AIDS with their infants during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, and there is no way to stop it short of not becoming pregnant. But here is the list of preventable HIV/AIDS transmissions:

- Penetrative oral, vaginal, or anal sex (Unprotected)

- Blood transfusion

- In health care settings

- Drug injection

So if these ways are all preventable, why is HIV/AIDS still such a major problem?

The human race needs to wise up, stop sharing needles, screen blood transfusions, and USE CONDOMS. Let’s beat AIDS before it beats us.

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Tyler Brooker is the owner and operator of Hiv And Aids - http://www.hiv-and-aids.com, which is the best site on the internet for all Hiv And Aids related information.

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I cannot have AIDS. I’m safe. You might think that, okay, but you can never be sure of the slightest contact or accident where you might have got in contact with an HIV or AIDS infected person’s body fluid. Get yourself checked and then claim it!

Ø I have nothing to do with HIV and AIDS infected. This is as good as saying I have nothing to do with the society. It is our social responsibility to make them feel and home. Until we all understand and accept this, these people will live a sad, disappointed and lonesome life!

Ø It’s no good attending AIDS seminar. This again, is as good as not going to school or college! You might not even know when this deadly disease captures you, and it has no cure! Prevention is better than cure, especially when there is no cure.

Ø Older people are safe. Does cold catch you after asking your age? Same is the case with AIDS. Age has nothing to do with it, habits have! Watch your actions and ways! Be aware and careful.

Ø People with AIDS die. They die a gradual death. Their body does not have any immune system, so even a cough can be ghastly.

Ø HIV and AIDS are the same. They are similar and consequential, but not same. HIV is a virus that attacks human’s immune system, but it may take a person as long as ten years to go from HIV positive to AIDS infected.

Ø I will get HIV if I share a room with an HIV infected. Not necessarily, though there are chances that you may. HIV is transmitted only through exchange of body fluid, so if that is avoided, then you will not contract HIV.

Ø If I and my partner both have HIV I don’t need to bother about safe sex and condoms. As a matter of fact, it’s quite the contrary. If you both are HIV positive then you need to be very very safe so that you don’t get a more aggressive HIV stain from the other.

Ø Oral sex is safe. No. Oral sex, involves a slight amount of body fluid exchange, though the chances and the amount might b very less. Oral sex is less risky, but it is not safe!

Ø Lesbians and Gays are safe from AIDS and HIV. No. It is as safe as ‘normal’ sex.

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Tarang Bhargava is the CEO of Vexat Inc. and has an affiliate marketing experience of six years. The website http://www.earncashonline.in is Affiliate Marketing invitation that provides an opportunity to Indians to make money through internet using his experience.

Read articles by him at http://www.ArticlesDirectory.org

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HIV and AIDS are some of those diseases, where precaution is the best treatment. Let’s go exploring.

HIV
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a retrovirus. It was first discovered in early 1980s. It affects a type of white blood cell (T Cell). Once this virus enters inside the body it completely cover the T Cell and start making a number of copies of itself. It fails the immune system of the body, which causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Currently, there is no vaccine available to prevent HIV infection.

AIDS
When HIV virus weakens the immune system of the body, the person is unable to fight the infection. This life threatening infection caused by HIV is called AIDS. It spread through human. It affects the normal functioning of immune system of the body. Currently, there is no treatment for AIDS is available. However there is significant improved HIV medications helping HIV positive people to live their life longer and healthier.

Transmission of HIV virus

1. • Sexual intercourse is the one of the big reasons of transmission of HIV virus. Those who practice unsafe sex, having more than one partner or involved in anal sex may be at higher risk.
   • Child can get the virus from his/her HIV infected mother and as a result of breast-feeding.
   • Contaminated needle is also a reason of transmission of HIV virus.

Causes and symptoms

1. • • Other people do not see any symptoms in infected person. Even the infected person may not experience infection for many years.
     • An HIV positive person may begin to feel sick. He or she can feel low-grade fever, regular cough, chronic fatigue and extreme weakness.
     • Heavy sweating at night occurs
     • Loss of appetite
     • Chronic Diarrhea
     • Trouble in remembering things However, when the doctors examine a patient, they will go through overall symptoms of AIDS instead of any one of the findings.

Prevention

1. • Practice only safe sex and be monogamous.
   • Condoms are successful in preventing AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). So, always use latex condom for you sexual activities.
   • Never share needles.
   • Blood must be tested before transfusion.

Treatment If you think that you may have HIV infection, you must get it tested. An early treatment may postpone the development of AIDS. The treating specialist will examine you and do the blood tests. Depending on the tests, results may take from several hours to several days. You can also approach AIDA testing center.
Since at present there is no cure for AIDS, prevention becomes more important. However a group of antiviral drugs that pump the immune system have helped many people to resist HIV infections. They are living a healthy and happy life. But at all these drugs may not be referred as a cure.

Find more information visit: Understanding HIV and AIDS

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Gender discrimination saps social consistency jeopardizing health and educational development. It is increasingly recognized as a key factor that makes women gravely vulnerable to AIDS and STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections). Improving and intensifying poverty reduction strategies pragmatically, overall development programs should be en-gendered. Otherwise development achievements may be endangered failing to contain epidemic.

Approximately 17.7 million women were living with HIV/AIDS in 2006 all over the world. Multiple vulnerabilities like social, cultural, economical and biological factors intertwined as a vicious circle may make prevalence sky-high anytime among women in the developing countries of Asia. So we have to raise a clarion call on combating the spread of epidemic through ensuring gender equality.

Gender discrimination promotes unequal access to resources and opportunities, sexual violence, practice of unprotected sex, women trafficking and women’s paltry representation and participation in social development activities. All of this result in power disparities that characterize personal relationships between male and female undermine the development of not only women but also a nation to a great extent. In this context, capitalizing on capacity building initiatives for vulnerable women encompassing sensitization, training & orientation, exchanging information, experience & views and networking may play an important role to reduce the incidents of HIV as a whole.

Having significant and multifaceted impact on public health, education, technology, business and administration sector as well as on demography, household, macro economy and society on a great scale, HIV/AIDS continues to spread in Asia and the Pacific. Comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention programs have been initiated successfully in some countries. Nonetheless several grave factors like illiteracy, gender inequality, unprotected extra marital sexual behavior, increasing use of intravenous drugs, isolation from generic health care services as well as lack of outreach treatment and care services are contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS gradually from most-at-risk population to the general population. As a result, the number of HIV infections among women is increasing day by day. This is why focusing very appropriately and timely on the importance of women empowerment, policy makers should be made gender sensitized necessarily.

Adopting an inter-sectoral approach to gender equality and establishing links between gender, development and HIV/AIDS, vulnerable nations have to have technical supports to confront epidemic. There is no alternative to integrate gender into such major development areas as good governance, poverty alleviation, disaster management & recovery, sustainable environment promotion, information & development communication (IDC) as well as HIV/AIDS prevention.

An in-depth study entitled ‘The impact of women empowerment on HIV/AIDS prevention in Bangladesh’ conducted by BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services) indicates that women are mostly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS due to their inherited conservative behavior, beliefs in superstitions and religious dogmas. They are deprived of enjoying their minimal rights as well. Consequently they are affected by gender discrimination severely. A recent survey initiated by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallayan Foundation showed that only 22% young women (15-25 years) had heard of HIV/AIDS and do not know how to protect themselves from AIDS/STIs.

HIV/AIDS epidemic is mounting all over the world especially in the developing countries being the greatest impediment to human development. Young girls and women are greatly vulnerable due to their lack of power and means to protect themselves from practice of unsafe sex and ignorance as regards reproductive health. Through a gender lens, multisectoral development strategies should be both pro-poor and pro-women supporting the integration of HIV/AIDS prevention into the development planning activities. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are intended to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. So in the course of reducing poverty, promotion of gender equitable behaviors through gender awareness will be able to contribute to reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS as per the desired achievement .

Anirudha Alam
Deputy Director
(Information & Development Communication)
BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services)
183, Lane 2, Eastern Road, New DOHS
Mohakhali, Dhaka 1206
Bangladesh.
Website: http://www.newsletter.com.bd/anirudha

Phone:+8801718342876, +8802 9889732, +88029889733 (office), +88028050514 (res.)
E-mail: anirudha.alam@gmail.com, info@bees-bd.org, bees@worldnetbd.net

Ref: UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank

Anirudha Alam is a prominent AIDS researcher and working in a national NGO BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services) as a Deputy Director (Information & Development Communication). He writes and edits more than forty books and a good number of articles on various issues like women empowerment, human rights, education awareness, social development, income generating activities, environment awareness, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS awareness, juvenile literature, short stories and so on. His noteworthy books are Kulsums and Karims (a collection of success stories of disadvantaged people of Bangladesh), Kulsums (a collection of success stories of disadvantaged & destitute women of Bangladesh), The Reflections (a collection of posters on literacy & education of Bangladesh), Towards a New Hope, Social Assistance Message Collection, Social Assistance Advocacy Manual, Eaisab Rat Din (a collection of juvenile poems), Du Sha Bachharer Sera Bangla Kishor Galapa (a collection of juvenile Bengali stories of two hundred years) etc.

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Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is known as AIDS in the short form. AIDS is in fact the collection of certain symptoms and infections in the human organism which permanently leads to the damage of the human immune system. AIDS is in other ways considered as the body’s defence system which hampers the normal functioning of the body organs to a great extent. The basic cause of AIDS is the two types of viruses, namely the HIV 1 and the HIV 2. Basically these two types of viruses are thus responsible in the performance of the defence mechanism system of the body.

The most common cause of AIDS is considered to be the unprotected sex. Sex without taking proper precaution like condom is very much responsible for AIDS. AIDS is generally transmitted through the semen. It is estimated that more than three million people round the globe had died through AIDS. During the prenatal stage also it is found that the mother will transmit the disease to the fetus before it is born. AIDS is transferred to the blood through the means of transfusion of blood into another’s body cell. Besides these, AIDS can also be caused through the use of injections which are not properly sterilized in the process of taking drugs or blood into the veins.

Symptoms of AIDS are not visible at the early stage. But at least after a period of 3 to 6 weeks the symptoms of AIDS can be noticed through certain flu like sickness. Besides these, symptoms like headache, nausea, fever, fatigue, diarrhea, etc. are also considered as other AIDS symptoms. But it can be mentioned out here though these symptoms occur in an AIDS patient; it lasts for only a temporary period of time after which it disappears. Sometimes acute AIDS symptoms also cannot be considered as the symptoms of AIDS, as they may also be found to be very much common to other forms of diseases. Thus symptoms either mild or severe cannot be considered as solely the symptoms of AIDS as other forms of sickness or diseases also witness the similar symptoms. But however, when the disease reaches its critical stage, the symptoms become very much acute thus leading to loss of weight, recurrent fever and also occurrence of certain fatal diseases. AIDS thus totally destroys the immune system of the body totally. AIDS is thus a deadly disease which is the result of unprotected sex, hence to prevent it is to avoid unprotected sex.

AIDS is a deadly disease, but how is it caused, how can it be prevented and many more such questions can find its answers through the articles written by Farzina Naznin for the sites like http://www.discountmenshealth.com/, http://www.thehealthiness.com/, and http://www.malehealthtools.net/ Comments from her readers are welcome at farnaznin@gmail.com

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Yes .. YOU can play a very important role against HIV and AIDS

AIDS is the most pressing problems faced globally. We can prevent the spread by a very simple process of communication. Communicating to spread awareness. By just educating only one neighbor or friend per week, we can cover a very huge population is a very short span of time.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. As the name suggests, AIDS is a syndrome i.e. a combination of many diseases due to failure of the Human Immunity System.

I just want to share a few basic facts, which need to be understood by us first and then need to be shared with others.

What is AIDS ? AIDS stands for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”. A virus called HIV causes it. It is the late stage of infection with HIV, which damages and ultimately destroys the immune system.

What is HIV ? HIV stands for Human Immune Deficiency Virus. It is the virus that causes AIDS.

What is the difference between being HIV-positive and having AIDS ? Being HIV-positive, means being infected with the virus. It is within the body and is slowly destroying the immune system. However, when the immune system becomes very weak and the body starts developing a number of infections, it is called AIDS. From the time the person has been infected with the virus, it may take anywhere from 5 to 10 years for AIDS to develop.

Is there any way HIV can create itself ? HIV cannot create itself under any circumstances. The virus has to be present in a person’s body and then passed on to someone else. HIV does not develop in a person’s body on its own accord. It is found only in ‘human beings’ and can only be ‘acquired’ from another infected human being.

How is HIV transmitted ?
HIV is transmitted in the following ways :
- By unprotected sexual intercourse with a person who is already infected with HIV. This is the most common way of getting HIV.
- By the transfusion of infected blood and blood products.
- By sharing needles contaminated with HIV infected blood.
- By a HIV positive pregnant women to the new born baby. Before, during or just after delivery (through breast feeding ).
HIV cannot enter the human body in any other way.

How does one protect oneself from infection ? “Prevention is always better than cure”. The only way to protect from this disease is by not sharing needles, not coming in contact with infected blood and having protected sexual intercourse.

Now if we understand these basic 6 questions and spread this information, we will be saving not just one person but the entire family … the entire generation.

I am the webmaster of aids.rafique.info Here i have listed the most common FAQs related to HIV and AIDS

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The title of this article is, incidentally, this year’s World Aids Day theme. This theme is designed to inspire citizens across the world to hold their political leaders accountable for the promises they have made on AIDS.

Here in Africa, our leaders have helped set up so many Aids-related funds, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and institutions. For that, and myriad more, we laud them. But there is still so much that has to be done for our people and to our people.

The HIV prevalence rates are growing grimmer by the day. According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 39.5 million people living with HIV, including 2.3 million children, and during 2006 some 4.3 million people became newly infected with the virus. It is estimated that around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and die of AIDS before they are 35. (The sixty-four-thousand dollar question: how many of our youth can boast of a HIV free status?)

If these statistics are anything to go by, then our leaders should devote more of their time, energy and resources in addressing the Aids scourge and come up with better ways of combating the spread of the disease. Our leaders should borrow a leaf from Senator Obama, if they must. The said US Senator took an HIV test in full public view when he visited Kenya sometime this year.

If our leaders decide to take a similar a stand, it will help accentuate (to the citizenry) the importance of knowing one’s HIV status so that one can take better charge of life. The line would run something like this: Mr. ***, my Member of Parliament, took a HIV test last week. This is two weeks after the president took such a test too. Therefore, it is equally important for me to know my status! .

The destinies of our nations are greatly hinged on our leaders’ decisions, attitudes, what they take seriously and whether or not they live up to what they proclaim. This is proof enough that they should be epitomes of moral perfection and integrity.

With so many people looking up to you, Sirs, you have so much to deal with on your plates that you can not possibly afford to be complacent and vacillate on matters of national interest.

HIV/AIDS is one such matter. Our leaders ought to live up to what they promise the people they lead. Accountability is of utmost importance in this respect.

· We have been promised better health care: please make good your promise.

· We have been promised more campaigns to sensitize people on HIV/AIDS prevention: please deliver the goods.

· We have been promised more interactive approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention and education: please keep your promises.

· We have been promised more aid to the needy and poor who are HIV positive: please, please, please don’t let us down.

· We have been promised anti-retroviral drugs that will be given free of charge: please, just know that millions of lives are hanging in the balance.

As we go into World Aids Day tomorrow let us endeavour to keep our promises and, as a result, build accountability.