HIV and AIDS

Hello Madam and guys. We proudly present our speech about HIV and AIDS. 

We will also tell you something about protection against this illness, its history, modern researches and help for aids-patients.

At the end we have got a quiz, so listen carefully to us, then you will be able to answer our questions easily and you will also win a little price!

Most people think that it's the same to be HIV positive and to have AIDS. That's not true. If you are positive the virus is in your blood but this doesn't mean that you are ill so far. You can be HIV positive for a lot of years and you must not mind it, because the virus spreads out very slowly. You generally speak about AIDS when you are fallen ill with more ordinary illnesses like sniffles or the flu because of your acquired immune deficiency.

Now I want to tell you more about the HI-Virus.

HIV means Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

The virus in an infected person starts to grow and the organism starts to produce antibodies. But they can't recognize the alien element and so the virus forces its way into the antibody and destroys it.

The HI-Virus isn't very resistant against external influences for example it can't survive in normal air. Therefore the virus can only be transmitted in endogenous liquids except sputum, tear liquid, urine and sweat. In these liquids the HIV was found but there is no known case of a transmission.

There are four important points where the danger of an infection is very high:

At first, as you know, sex. In most cases HIV is transmitted by sex without a condom. It doesn't matter if the sex is anal, vaginal or oral, but the danger of an infection by oral sex is much lower. Women are five times more endangered than men, because there is a higher concentration of viruses in the sperms than in the vaginal fluid.

There is also a high risk of a transmission if drug addicts use the same needles. Half of people who shoot drugs are HIV positive.

An other possibility for an infection is the transmission from a pregnant woman to her baby. This relative low risk lies about 13 to 20%.

At least, people, who get in contact with infected blood are also in danger. For example a person , who had an accident and gets a blood-transfusion.

Ok, David will tell you the way from the infection until the death caused by AIDS.

As we know, after an infection the body starts to produce antibodies. The HI-Virus uses them to grow. In most cases the infected person will not recognize the illness. But after some weeks you will already be able to infect others. When the HI-Virus has destroyed enough antibodies, the human immune system won't be resistant against ordinary illnesses as well as several kinds of cancer any longer. These acquired illnesses caused by the HI-Virus are called AIDS. AIDS is the abbreviation for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Until the outbreak of AIDS symptoms several years, about 8 to 10, could go by. This space of time is called incubation period. But there are also reports of person, who get AIDS after 2 years, and others, who lived without health-problems for more than 12 years. This depends on many factors, especially on the power of the immune system. The first symptoms which points to AIDS are tiredness, diarrhoea, fever and lymph node swelling, but these signs could also be pure chance.

The second and more advanced symptoms are pneumonia caused by fungi and the kaposi sarkom which is a malignant tumour.

In all cases AIDS brings you to death.

And now something about AIDS-tests

If you had a one night stand without safer sex and you want to test yourself there are two steps for a detection. At first you have to make a very sensitive antibody test, called ELISA. Because this test checks your immune system you have to wait some weeks until your body has produced enough antibodies. If this test is negative it's sure that you are not ill, but if the result is positive it can be false and so a further test must be done. This more complicated second test is called WESTERN-BLOT and can't bring a false result. If you are tested positive after the western-blot it's definitely sure that you have the HI-Virus in your blood.

Well let's talk about beginning of AIDS

The first case of AIDS was registered 1979 in New York. 1981 the United States Centre for Disease Control published the first report about AIDS. It couldn't be verified until beginning of 1984 that this illness is caused by the HI-Virus.

Tests were developed to analyse the origin and mechanism of the illness. Virus strains were found in Africa which were very similar to the HIV. This shows the way to the fact that the Virus has its origin there.

In October 91 The World Health Organisation estimated the number of Aids cases to 10 million world wide. In December 96 the number has already increased to 22.6 million people and 6.4 million deaths were registered.

Every picture you can see here is for one person, who died by AIDS in the USA.

Aids is one of the most common reasons for death. Two thirds of all people who have AIDS are Africans.

There are about 3 million new infections world-wide every year.

Since 1996 the program UNAIDS exists. With this program the AIDS-fight shall be coordinated  international.

Every year on the 1^st of December people all over the world celebrate the WORLD-AIDS-DAY. On this day you shall think of the ailment of the HIV positive people and those who died by AIDS. You will remember this day because the ORF always plays the film 'Philadelphia' with Tom Hanks. On this December the 1^st people in the streets of big cities will give red ribbons to you.

The red ribbon was invented in 1991 and it is a symbol for the fight against AIDS. On Easter-Monday 1992 it came to Europe for the 1^st time. On this day more than 100.000 red ribbons were given to visitors of a Freddie Mercury concert in London. Since then everybody knows what it is.

'Force for Change -World AIDS campaign with young people' was the motto of the last year. This sentence was chosen because 7000 teenager in the age of 10 to 24 infect themselves every day. This is more than half of all the infections a day. Especially in third world countries AIDS is a big problem because the people don't know about it. The aim of the world-AIDS-day 1998 was to inform young people about HIV, AIDS and its problems. They also gave help to all the ill people there.

At last facts about newest researches

So far there is no possible chance to cure AIDS. But there are methods to improve the life quality and expectancy of an aids-patient. For example you can make a therapy by genetic modification of infected cells to reduce the spreading of the HIV for about 2 month.

In Thailand and Africa physicians tested a new vaccination at drug addicts, who voluntarily made this experiment. The result will be available in about two years.

The problem of treatment of AIDS is the huge number of different virus-strains. Some of them are still unknown, and you have to fight against all of them. So scientists are looking for a product, which can kill all the kinds of viruses at once and not only one or two. It is expected that many years will go by until a solution is found.

At the moment the best way for HIV positive people is to strengthen their immune system by sports, healthy food and healthy living.

The best protection for you is to prevent:  GIVE AIDS NO CHANCE!!!!

QUIZ

Quiz

What is the difference between HIV and AIDS?

What are the four important points where the danger of an infection is very high?

How long does it take from the infection with HIV to the outbreak of AIDS symptoms?

Why do you have to wait some weeks before you can make an AIDS test?

When is the World-AIDS-Day?

What's the red ribbon?

What is the problem with AIDS in third world countries?

Is there already a change to cure AIDS?

Vocabulary