AIDS and Alcohol essays

AIDS and Alcohol essays According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (1992), there are two reasons to investigate connections between alcohol, HIV infection, and AIDS: alcohol may have a negative effect on the immune system, and alcohol may trigger high-risk sexual behavior. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV can be transmitted through sexual relations with an infected individual, through exchange of infected blood or blood products, or to a newborn from an HIV-positive mother. HIV-infected persons may have the virus for many years before clinical signs of disease appear. Eventually, HIV breaks down the body's immune system, mainly by damaging a class of white blood cells that are As a result, people who have AIDS are in danger of developing lung infections, brain abscesses, and a many other infections caused by microorganisms that usually do not produce disease in healthy people. People who have AIDS also are prone to cancers such as Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer rarely seen in non-HIV-infected populations. The diagnosis of AIDS depends in part on the presence of one or many of these infections and Approximately one million Americans are infected with HIV. At least 40,000 new HIV infections are believed to occur among adults and adolescents, and an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 new HIV infections are thought to occur among Currently, approximately 8 to 10 million people worldwide are infected with HIV. Of these, 50 percent are likely to develop AIDS within 10 years, and 90 percent may develop AIDS within 20 years of initial infection. The prognosis for persons with AIDS is nota positive one: AIDS-associated mortality may approach 85 percent within 5 years of diagnosis. Many health and research professionals working on the AIDS research firmly believe that alcohol plays a serious role in the world's AIDS epidemic. Althoug...