HIV_FAX

CI Human Biology - 1 Assigned: 11/19 Due: 11/24 We are starting a unit called "Outbreak". This is a wiki assignment about HIV. PART 1 pp. 344-345 What does AIDS stand for? Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome What does HIV stand for? Human immunodeficiency virus What is an opportunistic infection? It is one that has the opportunity to occur only because the immune system is severely weakened. What is the relationship between HIV and opportunistic infections? Aids is the advanced HIV infection, when a person develops one or more of a number of opportunistic infections. When and where did HIV transmission in humans begin? It is generally accepted that HIV originated in Africa and then spread to the usa through the Caribbean. HIV has been found in 1959 in blood. They think it came about in the 1950’s. some people think it came from primates. When was the name AIDS coined? The name was coined in 1982 and HIV was found to be cause of aids in 1983-1984 Why did it take several decades for the number of AIDS cases to increase to a point. that AIDS became recognizable as a specific disease? Because it had to be spread and it is not extremely infectious. It had to have time to infect. Why is AIDS now considered a pandemic? Because it is a disease that is prevalent in the entire human population around the world What percentage of new AIDS cases are in young adults ages 15 to 24? 50% Why is this particularly hard on a country? It is the youth of the nation, the backbone of the social political and economical structure and stability. Which continent has the highest percentage of people living with HIV? Africa What is the adult percentage of people living with HIV in that continent? 20% Which part of this continent has the highest prevalence rates? Sub Saharan Africa. PART 2 p. 352 Where do 95% of all HIV infected people live? In developing, poor to low income countries. Why is the death rate so high in these countries? Because people don’t have enough money to treat it. Lack of antiviral drugs and other health and educational services. What fraction of people in these countries were unaware of they had HIV? Why is that frightening? Why do you think that is the case? Nine out of ten people did not understand they had it. This means they can spread it a lot more because they don’t understand they have it. I think many people do not know what it is because they are poor and uneducated. In these countries, who is dying? The young or the old? Is there much difference between the number of men vs. women that die? In most parts of the world, what is the primary way that HIV is spread? In the US, which population has 50% of all new HIV cases? PART 3 Find an article published in the last six months that talks about the prevalence or rates of HIV infection in the US or abroad. Put a link to the article here and summarize in 75-100 words. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120100928.html HIV infects about one million people in the United States of America. The reason that this article says people should screen patients of 13 or older for HIV because 20,000 get infected every year because they do not know they carry it. They say that people should be should be retested on a need basis, people who have unprotected sex or share needles. This guideline was released by the American College of physicists. Screening can prevent un-needed transmission from undiagnosed people.