“AIDS perfectly mirrors the concerns, fears and spiritual state of humanity now. It has affected not only the gay society but also all the “main groups of society” in that sense AIDS has come about as some sort of a catalyst to society. AIDS is a logical development in the history of illness and medicine.” AIDS – The Homoeopathic Challenge (Stallick, J)
HIV is short for human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). AIDS is a serious, life-threatening illness that has a variety of symptoms. HIV infection can be treated to make patients feel better and to prolong life. However, there is no established way of cure for HIV infection or AIDS.
Approximately 1 million people in the United States are infected with HIV; about 40 million people are infected worldwide, and recently Union Health Minister of our country said India has the second largest number of HIV/AIDS patients in the world!
Pregnancy and AIDS – Facts
A woman infected with HIV
– can lead a normal life
– has the same chance of getting pregnant as a non-infected woman as HIV infection does not lead to infertility
– however, they should avoid becoming pregnant, as they can pass on the infection to the child
– pregnancy may increase the risk of her actually developing AIDS instead of just carrying the virus
– an infected pregnant woman can pass on HIV virus to her baby during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth. such a child may also develop severe illness during his/her first year of life. a majority of these infected babies will not survive until their fifth birthday.
– none of the contraceptives except good quality condom can prevent transmission of HIV from the infected to non-infected persons
HIV is a virus, it’s in the name Human Immunodeficiency Virus, that is what HIV stands for.AIDS is a syndrome, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, that is what AIDS stands for.When you have the HIV virus, you have the disease.In the later stages of the disease some people succumb to a syndrome, A syndrome is a group of symptoms that can be caused by a disease or other factors.AIDS is not a disease.
HIV as a virus can mutate as viruses do, adding a different strain, or mutation. Adding a mutation of the HIV virus to an already sick person is redundant, it’s still the HIV virus, the only difference is that a different strain or mutation makes coming up with a vaccine to protect other people harder for the doctors.That is why, for example, every year they come out with a new flu vaccine. The flu is caused by a virus. This virus mutates and the old vaccine is not as effective on any new strain (mutation)A dramatization of this problem is illustrated in the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo.