Essay/Term paper: Aids:is there a cure? are there preventions?

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biology

AIDS:Is There a Cure? Are There Preventions?


What is AIDS? How do you cure it? Find out by reading this report on
cures and preventions for the AIDS virus. In this report some of the topics
covered will be a small report on AIDS, preventions, and possible cures. This
report was written to prove if there is a cure for the AIDS virus, and if there
are any ways to prevent contracting AIDS. I mean who does AIDS think it is just
killing people?

AIDS is a virus that kills your immune system. The letters in AIDS stand
for Acquired, Immune, Deficiency, Syndrome. (Madaras,185-6)

There are four ways the AIDS virus can be spread. The first is by having
sexual intercourse with someone infected with the virus. AIDS is transmitted
this way by way of the semen. This is also the way most people get AIDS.
(Madaras,187) The second most common way people get AIDS is by dirty intravenous
needles. It is transmitted by the blood or other body fluids on the needle, and
when someone else then uses the same needle, they have a high risk of catching
the virus. The third most common way AIDS is spread is by blood transfusions.
This is done almost the same way as by IV needle but it is always by the
blood.(Madaras,187) The most rare way the AIDS virus is spread is by a mother
passing it to fetus inside her.(Madaras,188)

AIDS is a very rapidly-spreading disease although it is only spread four
ways. Ten years ago only two cases of AIDS were known. Nine years ago only seven
cases were known. In 1983 over 3,000 cases were recorded, and by 1989, there
were more than 100,000 cases. (Samuel,26)

Many people think you can get AIDS by what scientists call "casual
contact." Casual contact is by such means as swimming pools, kissing, toilet
seats, etc. "...it's important to remember that the AIDS virus doesn't live in
the air or on things we touch, the way cold or flu viruses do. (Madaras,186)
There have been no cases recorded where the infection was caused by casual
contact.

The part of your body that the AIDS virus kills is your immune system as
mentioned before, but what it really kills is your white blood cells. White
blood cells usually attack a virus when it enters the body.
"It is a relatively new disease. The first cases in this country were
discovered in 1981." (Madaras,185-6) Still, in all this time, scientists have
not figured out a cure or vaccine for the virus because they do not even know
how the AIDS virus cripples your white blood cells.

A common symptom AIDS patients get is developing rare types of skin
cancer. (Aids:Everything you should know,movie,AIMS,1989) Really AIDS doesn't
kill you--other germs or viruses do because when they enter the body there is
no immune system to protect your body so they can live freely. (Samuel,27)

There is no 100% sure way to prevent AIDS, and there is always a
possibility that you may contract the AIDS virus. (Aids:Everything you should
know,movie,AIMS,1989) The only true 100% sure prevention from getting AIDS is
called abstinence which means not having sex. (Madaras,166) The other way to
protect yourself from AIDS when you have sex is by using condoms. Although
condoms are not a 100% sure way to protect yourself from AIDS, it's still better
than doing nothing. (Madaras,166) A condom is a thin piece of rubber that fits
over the erect penis that traps the semen at the end. (Madaras,166) "Clearly it
would be helpful and self protective if a person who has a high risk sexual
life-style could at least modify it to make it less risky." (Nourse,128)

The only really sure way to protect yourself from getting AIDS by
needles is not to use them, but if you do, there are ways to prevent contracting
AIDS. The first is not to use needles that someone else has used before you.
Today doctors use different needles for each patient. (Madaras,187)

The hardest way to prevent getting AIDS is when you are going to have
a blood transfusion. A blood transfusion is when you're going to have surgery
and you need somebody's blood to replace the blood that you lost during the
operation. One way to protect yourself from AIDS when you're going to have a
blood transfusion is by checking out the person that donated the blood and to
see if he/she has contracted AIDS or has AIDS symptoms. The other way is to try
to donate your own blood ahead of time. As I said before, since 1985 all blood
must be scanned for the AIDS virus before it is used. (Aids:Everything you
should know,movie, AIMS,1989)

Many scientists today dedicate their whole lives to finding cures for
some kind of disease and many of them are trying to find a cure for AIDS. Such
drugs as AZT, DDL and Pyridinone have been used in attempting to retard the
development of the AIDS symptoms. (Cowley,51) Although none of the above drugs
actually cure AIDS, they do slow it down. In Michigan, a hospital has combined
all three of the drugs in a test tube and the mixture killed the virus. They
did this because the virus mutates so fast that one drug alone will not do it,
but if you send AIDS three drugs, it can't fight them all at one time so it dies.
(Cowley,51) These are all chemical cures but other scientists are also working
on genetic cures. Wong Follie has dedicated almost her whole life to finding a
cure for AIDS and other diseases. One of the possible cures she is working on
works by making a semi-copy of the AIDS virus. The part that actually kills
your immune system has been crippled. When the drone enters the body the immune
systems fights it. So basically what it is doing is teaching the immune system
how to kill the real AIDS virus when it comes. This has not actually been
tested because of the time it takes to make the drone.

So basically, in this report, you have found out that AIDS is a killer
and that anyone is vulnerable to the disease. There is no 100% percent sure way
to prevent the AIDS virus, so you better be very careful what you do. And
finally, you learned that there is no 100% test-proven cure, so once you get it
you're stuck with it forever.