Image: A Global View of HIV Infection (2006). The darker the colour of the country / region, the higher the adult prevalence rate of HIV.
I was reading lately that approximately 37 million people around the globe are living with HIV today, and more than 14,000 new cases are reported worldwide daily!Almost everyone has heard about HIV and fears contracting it. However, I feel that some facts are not always clearly communicated or are lost in the hype.Here are what I think are FAQs or, more appropriately, QESNTAT (Questions Everyone Should Know The Answers To) about HIV.
What does HIV stand for?
Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The virus targets specific cells in the immune system.
How is HIV different from AIDS?
An HIV infection can progress to AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). Since HIV attacks a specific type of immune cells, the number of these cells dwindles as the viral infection progresses. Counting the number of these immune cells left is a way of tracking the progression of the disease. HIV becomes clinically defined as AIDS when only a certain number of these cells is left in the blood. The importance of this cut off is that, with such low immune cell numbers, a person becomes prone to various other bacterial/viral/fungal infections that, in a person with a normally functioning immune system, are easily fought off.
Stay tuned for the next post of the series later this week, where I will answer the following questions.
How is HIV transmitted from one person to another?
How do I protect myself?How/ where do I get tested for HIV? Are the results anonymous?
Also, if you have questions you would like to ask, leave me a comment and I will try my best to look up the information for you.
Note: My source for the information in this post is Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, which is basically the bible of medical students. Unfortunately, access to this text online is restricted and unavailable to the public. However, I do plan to compile a list of great resources that are accessible to everyone.
IMAGE CREDIT: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/Default.asp
SIMILAR POSTS:
PREVIOUS POSTS: « ONE BIGASS COLLABO - PHRESHVIBE & VIRTUOSO - FEB.16th | MAIN PAGE | The Lessons of Jenn Grant »
Comments
This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Controversy, Education, Environment, Health, People. 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.
I worked as a sex educator for a couple of years in Vancouver, Winnipeg and New Delhi, and I think Vancouver has some great resources and local organisations that work on HIV/AIDS and sexual health. People might find the following local sources useful:
AIDS Vancouver: www.aidsvancouver.org
British Columbia Persons with Aids Society: www.bcpwa.org
YouthCo AIDS Society: www.youthco.org
Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS: www.asia.bc.ca
Healing Our Spirit BC Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Society: www.healingourspirit.org
Positive Women’s Network: www.pwn.bc.ca
oh wow, this is great Kamal!
I will definitely add these to my resources list on the next post of the series.
Thanks
[…] a continuation of my previous post as promised…and it’s really just a coincidence that I’m posting this after […]