Biology - Aids

Biology - Aids

1. Cause
Aids also known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus is caused by the virus HIV which destroys a type of defence cell in the body called a CD4 helper lymphocyte. These lymphocytes are part of the body's immune system, the defence system that fights infectious diseases. But as HIV destroys these lymphocytes, people with the virus begin to get serious infections that they normally wouldn't —that is, they become immune deficient. The HIV disease slowly eats away at the immune system which opens up the risk of day to day infections usually the body can fight off easily , struggle to do so under the new circumstances . This can happen via sexual intercourse, contaminated needles, blood
transfusion etc. The virus HIV infects cells of the human immune system and destroys them or stops them from working which therefore increases the vulnerability to infections and cancers to take over.

2. Transmission
Technically , you don’t actually get AIDS. You might be infected with The HIV virus and later develop AIDS. You can be infected with HIV from anyone who is sick from the blood , vaginal fluid, semen, breast milk. Even if they don’t look sick and been tested before it can still be picked up. The most common ways of HIV transmission around is having unprotected sex with infected individual, sharing needles with someone with is HIV positive and also being born from a mother who is HIV positive or drinking her breast milk.
One of the highest risk is sexual intercourse. During inter course, the HIV virus can enter the body in a number of different areas such as the muscular lining of the vagina, vulva, penis, or rectum also via the mouth but this is rare but might occur after oral sex. Another way HIV is transmitted is by contact with infected blood , most often by sharing of needles or syringes contaminated minute amounts of blood containing the virus.
HIV is extremely hard to spread from person to person unless the following occurs as above because it...

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