The Treatment Action Campaign has launched a blistering attack against former president Thabo Mbeki over his contentious stance on Aids, which has killed hundreds of thousands of South Africans.
Description
- Aids (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is caused by HIV (the Human Immunodeficiency Virus).
- HIV is mainly transmitted through sexual intercourse.
- Once a person is infected, the virus remains in the body for life.
- One can be HIV positive and feel completely well for many years.
- When a pregnant woman is infected, there is a one in three chance of her baby becoming infected if no steps are taken to prevent this.
- Most people infected with HIV will eventually get Aids.
- Aids is a fatal illness.
- There is no drug that can cure HIV infection, but there are drugs that can control the virus and delay the onset of Aids.
- There is no preventative HIV vaccine available at the moment, however research is ongoing to find one.
The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) is caused by infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV attacks and gradually destroys the immune system, which protects the body against infections.
Aids develops during the last stages of HIV infection. Aids is not a single illness, but the whole clinical picture (a syndrome) that occurs when the immune system fails entirely. A person with a failing immune system is susceptible to a variety of infections that are very unlikely to occur in people with healthy immune systems. These are called opportunistic infections because they take advantage of the body's weakened immune system. Certain types of cancers also occur when the immune system fails.
It may take years for a person's immune system to deteriorate to such an extent that the person becomes ill and a diagnosis of Aids is made. During this time (which can last as long as 15 years or possibly even longer), a person may look and feel perfectly well. This explains why so many people are unaware that they are infected with HIV. However, even though they feel healthy, they can still transmit the virus to others.
More than 90% of people living with HIV are in developing countries, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for two thirds of all the HIV-infected people in the world. Unlike Western countries, where HIV has initially affected predominantly homosexual men, in Africa and developing countries HIV is usually spread by sex between men and women (heterosexual sex).
