Health: HIV and Ways To Prevent It

 Oyin Oshileye 

HIV/AIDS is a serious health issue. HIV stands for Human Immune Deficiency Virus.It is the virus (germ) which causes AIDS. When a person is infected with the virus, his or her body fluids, such as blood, semen, and vaginal secretion will contain HIV itself and antibodies against the virus.

Upon infection, HIV stays in the body and slowly destroys the body's defence system (soldier of the body).when the immune (defence) system can no longer resist diseases, the infected person become sick and is said to have AIDS.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome “AIDS is real, e no dey show for face”

However, many people think it is a jokeso they catch the dreaded disease. It is the name that we give the condition that occurs when HIV has weakened the body's defence system and a person begins to fall ill. People with AIDS may have different symptoms like prolonged diarrhoea, white coating on the tongue, enlargement of glands in the neck, groin and or armpits, persistent fever, persistent cough, skin infections and unexplained weight loss. It should be noted that these symptoms characterize other diseases (diarrhoea or intestinal illness and so on).Test for the presence of HIV antibodies are therefore the surest way of determining if someone has AIDS.

HIV/AIDS Is a deadly disease which any person who does not want to be sent to the grave prematurely should avoid at all cost. How exactly did the disease come into being? Many researches have been carried out to ascertain the cause of the disease.Much money has been spent in trying to find out how the disease came into existence.Quite unfortunately, nobody has been able to come up with any known source of the disease.

Similarly, a lot of efforts have been made to find a permanent cure for the disease.Again a colossal amount of money has been spent in an attempt to provide a cure.World renowned scientists and researchers have made frantic effort to make available a cure for the disease.So far all their efforts have yielded no positive results. They have only been able to provide drugs which can be used to provide temporary relief for the sufferers of the disease.

How can a people contract HIV/AIDS? There are a number of ways of contracting the disease.The major one is through having sexual relationships. A man who goes about having sexual relationships with just any woman, or a woman who does not stick to her husband in sexual affairs but has sexual relationships indiscriminately will contract the disease. 

Similarly, a boy or a girl who goes about having sex while he / she is not yet married will become an HIV/AIDS victim. When blood is exchanged such as during blood transfusion, when using unsterilized skin piercing instruments (e.g. needles, syringes, razor blades, circumcision instruments, etc.)and from an infected mother to her infant during pregnancy, child birth or through the breast milk can also cause HIV/AIDS.