Immunodeficiency is a condition where the immune system is compromised and cannot fight off infection properly. This is what the HIV virus causes. The virus slowly attacks the immune system, damaging a type of white blood cell called T-cell that is responsible for fighting infections.
The speed at which a person with HIV develops symptoms depends on how fast the virus spreads through their body and this can vary from person to person. The point when the virus causes a dip in immunity, measured by an extremely low T-cell count, is called AIDS. As this stage, a person doesn’t actually get sick from HIV itself, but from the 'opportunistic' infections that attack the body once AIDS sets in. The first signs are usually 'severe flu-like' symptoms, with following symptoms being those of other contracted illnesses.
Scientists are still debating about the origin of HIV. It is widely thought to have originated at least 32,000 years ago from a similar virus in chimpanzees called the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), passed on to humans who were hunting and eating them. However, the first recorded incidences of HIV didn't occur until the early 1980s.
In 1981 a rare illness started to be reported in Los Angeles, Unites States. Five men had been infected and two of them had died from it. Reports of the illness described symptoms of severe fatigue, fever, weight loss and seemingly only affecting gay men. A year later, the disease got its name – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
Research centres across the world set out to search for the cause of AIDS. In 1983 Dr Luc Montagnier and Dr Françoise Barré-Sinoussi at the Pasteur Institute in Paris isolated the HIV virus and showed that it was the cause of this new and little-understood disease.
HIV is passed on through bodily fluids through three main ways: during unprotected sex, through blood and mother-to-child transmission. These are all now preventable. Using condoms gives the highest chance of protection during sexual intercourse and screening blood products and not sharing needles lowers the chance of transmission through blood. Mother-to-child transmission is now also fully preventable if the mother takes a course of drugs called ARVs.
HIV is manageable and having HIV does not mean a person will develop AIDS. Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs suppress the virus and stop the progression of the disease. ARV drugs need to be taken by the patient every day for the rest of their lives, but in doing so can lead relatively normal lives without adverse effects. It is important to note that there is no cure for HIV and those infected with the virus will always have it, so even if the virus is under control from the drugs, the patient can still pass HIV on to others.
There is emergency help for those who know they've been infected with HIV. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) treatment is a course of ARVs that is taken within 72 hours of exposure. If taken continuously for a month, PEP can reduce the risk of infection by 80%. Such measures are especially useful for those working in the healthcare profession that may accidentally be infected by a patient.
Let us remember that every person who is infected – whatever the reason – is a fellow human being, with human rights and human needs. Let no one imagine that we can protect ourselves by building barriers between us and them. In the ruthless world of AIDS, there is no us and them We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?
Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations