AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a disease caused by a virus.
The AIDS virus attacks the white blood cells in our body, causing certain infections and conditions that our body would normally fight off with no problem to be fatal. The virus breaks down the body's immune system, leaving a person defenseless to fight against unusual life threatening illnesses.
The ignorance about the disease and the way it can be transmitted has contributed to its growth. According to research, AIDS can be transmitted during sexual contact, blood contamination, IV drug users and contamination from blood transfusions because of infected blood. The epidemic is also killing heterosexual and non-drug users, as well as homosexuals. A woman who is infected with the AIDS virus may spread the disease to her baby during pregnancy or during birth. The virus affects people differently. Some people do not get ill at all; some develop mild symptoms while other develop severe symptoms and die. AIDS is a nationwide epidemic. AIDS is not a truly new disease. It is a disease that have been newly discovered. For all we know Aids have been around for many years, but we didn't know what it was. .
In Manchester England, a British sailor was presenting himself to doctors. He had suffered for nearly two years. A variety of puzzling symptoms, including strange purplish lesions on his back and shoulders. In 1958 his condition had taken a turn for the worse, but sadly just before Christmas. Almost everything he did left him breathless, the slightest exertion. A very upsetting case of night sweats had come across his path. The young sailor lost an alarming amount of weight and developed a spiking Fever. Day by day, the sailor grew weaker and weaker. August of 1359 the sailor died. An autopsy found evidence of pneumonia. The doctors could not explain the patient's low resistance to the infection. The patient's immune system was weak and could not fight off the disease.
