I'm sure all of you that are
reading this have heard the word AIDS from either your
mom, dad, or someone else. If you have heard of AIDs,
maybe you don't know what it means. AIDS has been one
of the worst viruses in the world since 1983!
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that damages
your immune system so other diseases can get into your
body. The first AIDS virus was discovered by French
researchers in 1983 then again in the USA in 1984. The
virus was renamed HIV-1 in 1985. In the same year
French scientists discovered another virus related to
HIV-1 that also produces AIDS called HIV-2. HIV-2
mainly occurs in west Africa, but HIV-1 occurs all
over the world. Although we have never found a cure
for AIDS, there's a combination of drugs that treats
the symptoms.
HIV, or AIDS, has different stages
of symptoms that can keep getting worse every few
weeks. In the first stage of AIDS you get a flu like
case of mononucleosis. That occurs within the first
twelve week after becoming infected. The second stage
of AIDS has a wide variety of mild or severe symptoms.
Some of the symptoms include tiredness, skin rashes,
and dental problems (rotting teeth etc.). This stage
may last for a few months. The third and final stage
of AIDS is the damaging of the immune system. When
AIDS damages your immune system it's allowing other
diseases in like the flu or even a common cold that
usually your body can fight off but with your immune
system damaged your body can't fight it
off.
AIDS can be gotten by using dirty
needles or sex activity but the most common way for
kids to catch it by is parents having it and passing
it on either from birth or the mothers breast milk.
People can also catch it by making contact with an
infected person's blood.
"I hope they find a cure for it,
before too many people catch it," comments Peter in
IL. Scientists also hope to find a cure for AIDS
before most of the USA and all of Africa get exposed.
If you had the chance to save billions of people from
getting AIDS, you would, wouldn't you?
AIDS graphic on this page
created by the
"Kids Making Healthy Choices" ThinkQuest
team.
