Aids: Epidemic Of The Century :: AIDS Essays

INTRODUCTION on that point is no doubt that back up is indeed the epidemic of the century. Not merely ar there many supporting facts and data, visiting urban cities and threesome world countries prove this point. Furthermore, support is not precisely highly infectious, it is in addition the first major incurable epidemic throughout this biomedical vicissitude that mankind is going through. This epidemic might actually be the iodine that will completely wipeout the third world. Scientists, government agencies and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to find a cure to this epidemic but in the think about time we have to find a way to deal with it, if possible. As we continue into the next millennium with all sorts of problems facing humanity, the choice with involve to AIDS is simple, evolve or dieINFECTIVITYThe Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has cardinal different types of strains. HIV-1 is the North American strain while HIV-2 is the African strain. The only real difference between the two is that HIV-2 has the vpx gene while HIV-1 does not. As you can tell by the name, the virus works by piecemeal deteriorating the immune sy bowknot. The virus can infect any cell with CD4 molecules on the cells membrane. It seems to specifically destroy or disable the CD4+ T cells. These cells are sometimes called "T helper" cells. They work by signalling otherwise cells to perform their special functions. A normal healthy person usually has a CD4+ T cell count of 800 to 1,200 per cubic millimetre of blood. erstwhile a persons CD4+ T cell count travel below 200/mm3, a person is diagnosed with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). A person diagnosed with AIDS will usually die of an opportunistic infection, not of HIV/AIDS itself.HIV is a virus and a virus is basically a microscopic bag of protein filled with a strain of DNA or RNA. To be more specific, HIV has a diameter of approximately 1/10,000 of a millimetre and is spherical in shape ( see Figure 1-1). The viral envelope consists of two layers of lipid molecules and contains proteins taken from the host cell. There are 72 copies (on average) of a complex HIV protein called Env. Env is made of three or four molecules of a glycoprotein, gp120, that form a cap and a stem consisting of gp41 molecules that anchor the structure to the surface of the viral envelope. HIV belongs to the class of viruses cognise as retroviruses.