HIV/AIDSwas first reported in the United States in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide epidemic. AIDS is caused by HIV, and results when HIV has severely damaged a patients immune system. By killing or damaging cells of the body’s immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body’s ability to fight infections and certain cancers. People who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS can get dangerous infections called opportunistic infections. These infections are caused by microbes such as viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick.
HIV Causes AIDS
Since 1981, more than 980,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC reports that 1 million Americans are likily infected with HIV, 1/4 of which are unaware of their infection. The HIV epidemic is increasing the most amoung minority populations and is leading killer of black males between age 25 and 44. The CDC reports that HIV/AIDS affects nearly 10x more African Americans and 3x more Hispanics then whites. In recent years, an increasing number of African-American women and children are being affected by AIDS HIV.
HIV eliminates CD+ immune cells, which are cells crucial to maintaining the body’s immune system. As the virus attacks those cells, the person infected with HIV is less equipped to fight off infection and disease ultimately resulting in the development of AIDS.
Most people who are infected with HIV can carry the virus for years before sufficient damage to the immune system results in the development of AIDS. There is a strong connection between HIV in the blood and the decline of CD4 cells and the onset of AIDS. Antiretroviral medications can help slow the infection, save CD4+ T cells and ramatically slow the advance of HIV infection.