Hello People, My name is Vibhu and today in my very first blog about medical-health, I am going to explain briefly & effectively everything that you need to know about HIV-AIDS, also I am going to bust some great myths and misconceptions about its spread. I hope you will gather some good knowledge from this blog.

Also keep in mind that this blog is for educational purposes & not for medical consultations.

What is AIDS?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, that is it is the degradation of body's immunity during a period of time, also it is acquired in life time of a person so it is not a congenital (by birth) disease.

What is a Syndrome? 

It is actually the condition when a person starts showing cluster of various signs and symptoms in his/her body simultaneously. AIDS is also a syndrome as here due to deficient immunity of body a number of other diseases attacks on the person creating a number of symptoms.

History of AIDS :

• AIDS was first time reported in the year 1981 in USA amongst homosexuals and in last 35 years or so it has killed more than 30 million persons across the globe.
• India reported it's first case of AIDS in year 1986, just five year later after first case.
• It is believed that the AIDS virus may have passed from monkey into human population during late 1960s.

Causative Agent of AIDS?

AIDS is a viral disease & HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the pathogen/causative agent of AIDS.

What are Retroviruses? 

These are actually the bigger group of viruses that contains many other disease causing viruses in them. HIV is also the member of Retrovirus group.

Structural details of HIV :

• HIV contains an envelope enclosing RNA genome.
• RNA is the main component responsible for infection.
• There are two separate RNA strands present in sphere of HIV.
• HIV secures it's RNA with two layers of protein coats, bilayerd lipid membrane and glycoprotein spikes.
• Besides RNA it also contains two RTE (Reverse Transcriptase Enzyme) molecules (It's role has been discussed further in the blog).

How HIV acts in our body?

Not going much into technical details let me explain you how HIV infects and spreads in body.

1. Virus enters into the body and enters into special cells of the body called Macrophages where it doubles/increases it's infective part i.e RNA with the help of RTE.
2. After this the RNA of HIV turns into DNA.
3. Now this DNA incorporates into human cell's DNA and directs it to produce more viruses.
4. HIV also enters Helper T lymphocytes (responsible for immunity) and increases it's number there as well.

Symptoms of HIV infection :

1. Fever, Diarrhoea, Weight loss.
2. Bacterial infections (Mycobacterium), Other Viral & Fungal infections.
3. Parasitic like Toxoplasma infection.
4. Lethargy, Nausea, Headache & Rashes on body.

Transmission of HIV :

HIV gets transmitted via body fluids like semen, blood etc. It also occurs in following ways : 

• Use of infected blood/blood products.
• Use of contaminated needles, syringes and razors.
• Sexual intercourse with infected person without using condoms.
• From infected mother to child through placenta.
• Artificial Insemination.
• Organ transplant.

Diagnosis of AIDS : 

It is done using ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Test & ELISA positive cases are confirmed by doing another test called Western Blotting and hence conclusions about HIV positive cases are made.

Treatment : 

• AIDS has no cure or treatment whereas prevention is always advised in such deadly incurable diseases always better than cure.
• Some drugs like Zidovudine or AZT (Azidothymidine), Didanosine are administerd in HIV infected person to prolong his/her life.
• No Vaccine prepared so far against HIV-AIDS.

World AIDS Day :

Every year December 01 is celebrate as world AIDS Day to educate people about this condition, its myths and misconceptions by various NGOs & NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation).

In AIDS Prevention is always better than cure. So get yourself educated about it & avoid all the chances of getting infected.

Although infection with HIV doesn't mean that one can't survive normally for long. But they have to be in medical supervisions.

That's all for today's post about HIV-AIDS. I hope you get to learn something from this post. Do comment your views, like this post & share as well.

I will see you in the next post. Till then take a good care of yourself and your family.

Thank You.