HIV and AIDS

Life and the study of it: Biology, fascinates me.

What is fascinating is that every living thing on this Earth will do its best to survive... except maybe for humans. Some commit suicide for reasons of such insignificance that it boggles the mind. Rather than trying to use their complex brains to figure a way around the problem, or solving the problem, they take the 'easy way out' ( I never thought looking down the barrel of a gun is something easy) and shoot themselves and sometimes others, to smithereens, just to get a point across.

To explain how ridiculous some people are in thinking that ending their lives is a better alternative than to fight for the opportunity to prolong it, today's class will be about the HIV virus, the cause of the disease we know as AIDS.

Pay attention.

I'm kidding. It is just a very interesting topic, a sentiment you will probably share with me at the end of this post.

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HIV and AIDS


HIV, due to the lack of creativity amongst the scientists who first found it, stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. You can easily google it to find out that it is the most widely accepted cause for the the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS.



How it is transmitted


Back when I was still in school, the level of understanding of the virus and the disease was relatively minimal. It was the scariest disease of the decade. Textbooks I was made to study listed three main reasons for the transmission of the disease:
1. the sharing of tainted hypodermic needles or syringes amongst drug addicts
2. the promiscuous lifestyles of people who change partners faster than their mobile phones
3. from the infected mother to the foetus in the womb


How they die from it


Those who are HIV-positive die from secondary diseases such as pneumonia, tumours or skin cancer known as Sarcoma. It was not specified how long it takes for HIV+ patients to succumb to the disease.

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And that was it. Very simplistic way of looking at it but... it is enough information for 15-year-olds to take in in the 90s.

This is one of the reasons you should not take education for granted. What they tell you in school may not be the total truth, or may not be the updated version information that may help save your life.


The stigma of being HIV+


Based on the transmission methods listed above for the HIV virus, HIV can be depicted as a quite selective virus or biological being. People with questionable backgrounds like drug addicts, homosexuals (back in the day) or promiscuous mothers were regularly viewed as the few main groups of likely victims of the virus. This is one of the reasons AIDS is viewed as a taboo disease in Asia, or at least in South East Asia. If you are infected with it, chances are you are a person from either of the three groups. People look at you strange, even when you have done no wrong.


Not a very picky virus, it is...


So it's good to know that people are beginning to understand that the HIV virus is colourblind, race-blind and religion-blind. Not in a good sense, but at least people are understanding that school teachers, patients waiting for organ transfers or even blood donors can easily be infected by the HIV virus when partners are not faithful in marriages, and when medical personnel become lackadaisical with hygiene and sterilization, in which tainted blood may be transmitted to blood donors who were expecting to do a good deed, only to return home infected with the deadly virus. In my country, there had already been a reported case regarding this incident.

In fact, if you take the word of Wikipedian writers, there is a much higher rate of contracting the disease through blood transfusion and childbirth than to get it through any form of intercourse or from needle sharing for drug use. See Prevention section.


New information regarding the virus and the disease shows that it could take up to 10 years for the virus to click into action. During the 10 years leading up to the big day, the virus self-replicates through host cells taken from the host's body. Am I losing you? Okay, let's tone this down a bit.


Falling sick and the human immune system


As the name suggests, the virus attacks the immune system of the body. Your immune system is what keeps you alive after you have become sick with a disease or an illness. Coughing, fevers, a leaky nose, rashes, phlegm, wounds and blisters, amongst others are symptoms, shows your body working against pathogens: bad bacteria which make you fall sick.

So a bacteria enters your body in many imaginable ways (you may have ingested it, you may have breathed it in, you may have been in contact with bodily fluids (sneezes) that contain the bacteria) and start causing havoc to your internal systems. Every bacteria attacks a particular part or system of the body.

This is when your body sends out its soldiers or white blood cells to protect your body whilst attacking and disintegrating the bacteria where they stand. Then, you heal and you go out into the Sun and play again until the next bacteria or virus strikes.


How HIV works


Nature is so creative.

At least the HIV virus (actually the V in HIV stands for virus, and since this is an oversight by the original scientists who thought of it, hadn't thought of, let's stick to calling it HIV virus to make the explanation easier to get through) is, in this sense.

In the normal sense the usual bacteria are recognized by the immune system (soldiers) through markers on the surface of the bacteria; it's something like putting yourself under the spotlight for wearing your uniform while entering the enemy's fortress. You're bound to get shot.

So how do you work around this problem?

You put on the enemy's uniform. You make yourself indiscernable (it's something like blending in, camouflaged, disappearing into the crowd). And while you're at it, you poison the minds of the enemy soldiers, brainwashing them into producing ammunition for you and crossing over to your side. This is what the HIV virus does. Over the course of 10 years. Until the very last moment when something (we don't know what yet) triggers it and it is released, full blown, in the form of AIDS.

I repeat, Nature is damn creative.


How HIV works in more technical terms (I'm not really good at this)


Technically, the HIV virus attaches itself to a T-cell, a white blood cell (aka a soldier), injects its DNA into the cell, tricks the cell into using its own manufacturing system to produce more of the virus' DNA and producing capsules for the DNA to be encapsulated in before destroying itself to release the new baby viruses into the bloodstream to infect other T cells.

Go, my little pretties, go infect the other T cells. Sigh, they grow up so fast.


Last but not least, how one dies from AIDS


Putting it in simple terms, you don't really die from AIDS, you actually die from secondary diseases (such as pneumonia, TB, Kaposi Sarcoma (cancer)) and the lack of a fully operating immune system to help you fight against it. Yes, your fortress goes down because all your brainwashed soldiers are not doing their part protecting the fortress so when your enemies storm the castle, cross the bridge, and climb your walls and your soldiers are helpless to fight back, the kingdom is thus, taken.

And to think that this attack strategy is derived and pictured in nature through a virus, the smallest living (loosely termed) thing on Earth, you can't but help marvel at Darwin's survival of the fittest theory.

I may be small, but I'm one of the deadliest things on Earth. Fear me.

Now as your homework: Look up how the HIV is transmitted, the efforts taken to reduce the transmission rate of the disease and as a side project, read up this very interesting link on misconceptions about HIV and AIDS.

Note: Despite the way this article is written, I resent anyone who thinks that I speak of HIV and AIDS as a joke or in a tone too light to be taken seriously. I believe that it is important to educate the public on issues that affect society and the community as a whole. None of us are safe from any forms of disease, including AIDS. We do not get Survivor-style immunity from another of Mother Nature's creations and so we must arm ourselves with the knowledge to steer clear of these creations' pursuit to survive another day. Survival of the fittest, right? Now, go get fit.