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Name Avis Brooks
Course DAAC 2354
Date 11/04/2017
Group Research Paper
HIV/AIDS
Rational
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome, also known as AIDS. HIV kills or damages the cells of the body’s
immune system, destroying CD4 positive (CD4+) T cells, a type of white blood cell vital to
fighting off infection. Because HIV compromises the immune systems, HIV-positive people are
vulnerable to other infections, diseases, and complications. A blood test is used to confirm the
presence of HIV in the body. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. A person infected with
HIV is diagnosed with AIDS when he or she has one or more opportunistic infections, such as
pneumonia or tuberculosis, and has a dangerously low number of CD4+ T cells (less than 200
cells per cubic millimeter of blood).HIV is most often transmitted through unprotected sex with
an infected person. AIDS may also spread by sharing drug needles or through contact with the
blood of an infected person. Women with HIV can transmit it to their babies before or during
birth or through breastfeeding. HIV-infected people taking antiretroviral therapy can still infect
others through unprotected sex and needle-sharing. Incapable of surviving long outside the body,
HIV cannot be transmitted through routine daily activities, such as using a toilet seat, sharing
food utensils or drinking glasses, shaking hands, or kissing. The virus can only be transmitted
from person to person, not through animals or insect bites. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimates more than 1 million people are living with HIV in the United States.
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Twenty-one percent of people living with HIV—one in five—are unaware of their infection.
According to CDC statistics, an estimated 56,300 Americans become infected with HIV each
year. The World Health Organization’s latest figures pinpoint the total number of people living
with HIV/AIDS worldwide at 33.3 million. There is no cure for HIV/AIDS. Before the
development of certain medications, people with HIV could progress to AIDS in just a few
years. Today, many effective medicines allow infected people to live much longer—even
decades—with HIV before developing AIDS. Most of these medicines “inhibit” the progress of
the disease by interfering with the virus’s reproduction, protein production, and ability to enter
the body’s cells. (http://www.scripps.edu/discover/hiv-aids.html). The population that I feel that
will benefit from a group would be bi-sexual men and women, and injection drug users anyone
