HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is different from most other viruses because it attacks the immune system. The immune system gives our bodies the ability to fight infections. HIV finds and destroys a type of white blood cell (T cells or CD4 cells) that the immune system must have to fight disease.
An HIV-infected person may look and feel fine for many years and may therefore be unaware of the infection. However, as the immune system weakens, the individual becomes more vulnerable to illnesses and common infections. Over time, a person with untreated HIV is likely to develop AIDS and succumb to multiple, concurrent illnesses. Because HIV/AIDS is a condition characterized by a defect in the body's natural immunity to diseases, infected individuals are at risk for severe illnesses that are not usually a threat to anyone whose immune system is working properly. Behaviors associated with drug abuse, such as sharing drug injection equipment and/or engaging in risky sexual behavior while intoxicated (from drugs or alcohol), have been central to the spread of HIV/AIDS since the pandemic began more than 25 years ago. As yet, there is no cure for AIDS, and there is no vaccine to prevent a person from acquiring HIV, although there are effective medications to treat HIV infection and help prevent the progression to AIDS.
HIV virus may be passed from one person to another when infected blood, semen, or vaginal secretions come in contact with an uninfected person's broken skin or mucous membranes (wet thin tissue found in certain openings to the human body, such as the mouth, eyes, nose, vagina, rectum, and opening of the penis). In addition, infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their baby during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast-feeding. People with HIV have what is called HIV infection. Some of these people will develop AIDS as a result of their HIV infection.
Origin of HIV
Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans. The virus most likely jumped to humans when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood. Over several years, the virus slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world.
Brief History of HIV in the United States
HIV was first identified in the United States in 1981 after a number of gay men started getting sick with a rare type of cancer. It took several years for scientists to develop a test for the virus, to understand how HIV was transmitted between humans, and to determine what people could do to protect themselves. During the early 1980s, as many as 150,000 people became infected with HIV each year. By the early 1990s, this rate had dropped to about 40,000 each year, where it remains today.
AIDS cases began to fall dramatically in 1996, when new drugs became available. Today, more people than ever before are living with HIV/AIDS. CDC (Centers for Disease Control) estimates that about 1 million people in the United States are living with HIV or AIDS. About one quarter of these people do not know that they are infected: not knowing puts them and others at risk.
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