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HIV/AIDS
On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the first report alerting the medical community to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS — acquired immune deficiency syndrome — a disease that fatally attacks the immune system. Since then, AIDS has since become a major global epidemic.
What distinguishes HIV from most other viruses is that antibodies produced by the immune system cannot kill HIV. Once a person is infected, HIV remains in the blood forever. After a silent but intense battle that can last 10 years or more, the virus weakens the immune system to the point that it can no longer protect the body from infections. These opportunistic infections, such as pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and cytomegalovirus (CMV), are the late-stage conditions that define AIDS. In addition, patients with HIV face an increased risk of contracting certain cancers and neurological disorders.
For the past decade, HIV infections among U.S. women have increased dramatically, especially in women of color. In 1985, women made up seven percent of people living with AIDS. Today, women make up 27 percent. And between 1999 and 2003, the number of AIDS cases increased 15 percent among women but just one percent among men.
African-American and Hispanic women, who represent less than 25 percent of all U.S. women, account for more than 79 percent of AIDS cases in women. More specifically, African Americans make up nearly 60 percent of AIDS cases in women and Hispanic women make up 20 percent of women with AIDS, while white women account for only 16.8 percent. Also according to the CDC, HIV/AIDS is now the eighth leading cause of death among women ages 25 to 34 and the leading cause of death among African-American women in this age group.
Thanks to new antiretroviral drugs, deaths from AIDS in both men and women in the U.S. have declined steadily in the past several years. From 1996 to 1997, 42 percent fewer Americans died of AIDS. The overall death rate dropped that year from the eighth to the 14th leading cause of death. However, new HIV infections have remained stable at about 40,000 cases a year, and the proportion of infections in women continues to increase.
Recently, the decline in AIDS cases has plateaued. From 1998 to 2002, the number of estimated deaths among persons with AIDS declined 14 percent, indicating that much of the benefit of new drugs may have been realized. At the same time, complacency toward the use of barrier protection, resulting primarily from over-optimism about HIV treatment, has health officials worried. New studies have identified disturbing increases in HIV infection among young gay men and high-risk adolescents.
This relaxed attitude toward prevention led to an upswing in AIDS cases in this younger age group over the past few years. The rate of young people diagnosed with AIDS increased from 3.9 percent in 1999 to 4.2 percent in 2004. The CDC reported 40,059 cumulative cases of AIDS in people aged 13 to 24 through 2004. Since the epidemic began, about 10,129 young adults and adolescents have died from the disease.
HIV is transmitted through the blood, semen and vaginal secretions of an infected person. Here are the important facts about how HIV is transmitted:
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The virus is mainly spread by unprotected sex and sharing needles with an HIV-infected person.
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Babies born to HIV-infected women may become infected before or during birth, or shortly after birth through breast-feeding if preventive measures aren't taken.
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You cannot become infected with HIV through casual contact or insect bites or stings.
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Only a few cases of HIV have been transmitted in household settings. They are believed to have occurred when infected blood or other body fluids came in contact with skin or mucous membranes.
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Casual contact through closed-mouth or "social" kissing is not a risk factor for transmission of HIV. However, experts recommend against "French" or open-mouthed kissing with an infected person because of the increased possibility of contact with blood-contaminated secretions.
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The presence of oral or genital sores from other sexually transmitted diseases (such as herpes or syphilis) increases the risk of sexual transmission of HIV.
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The risk of acquiring HIV from an infected health care professional is extremely low.
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Female-to-female transmission of HIV appears to be low. However, case reports of female-to-female transmission of HIV indicate that vaginal secretions and menstrual blood are potentially infectious and that mucous membrane (e.g., oral, vaginal) exposure to these secretions has the potential to lead to HIV infection.
