1. HIV-AIDS Stemming the Tide of Epidemic Syed Amin Tabish

2. What is HIV ? Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV harms the body's immune system by attacking certain kinds of cells, known as helper T cells or CD4 cells, which are a part of the body's natural line of defense against illness. As time goes by, HIV destroys so many of these cells that the body is no longer able to defend itself against certain cancers, viruses, bacteria, or parasites. If left untreated, HIV can lead to AIDS and death.

3. What is AIDS ? AIDS occurs when an individual's immune system is weakened by HIV to the point where they develop any number of diseases or cancers. People who haven't had one of these diseases or cancers, but whose immune system is shown by a laboratory test to be severely damaged are also considered to have progressed to an AIDS diagnosis.

4. How HIV is transmitted HIV is spread by: Sexual contact with an infected person Sharing needles and/or syringes (primarily for drug injection) with someone who is infected Through transfusions of infected blood or blood clotting factors. Babies born to HIV-infected women may become infected before or during birth or through breastfeeding after birth. In the health care setting, workers have been infected with HIV after being stuck with needles containing HIV-infected blood

5. The HIV-AIDS Connection AIDS was first recognized in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide pandemic AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) , which was discovered in 1983. By leading to the destruction and/or functional impairment of cells of the immune system, notably CD4+ T cells, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

6. Epidemiology & Trends At the end of 2002, although the adult prevalence rate in Southeast Asia was a relatively low 0.6%, approx. 6 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS in the region. An estimated 700,000 adults and children were newly infected with HIV during 2002 and there were 440,000 AIDS related deaths. Approximately 36% of infected adults were women.

7. HIV Trends In South and Southeast Asia, the major HIV transmission mode is heterosexual, followed by injecting drug use. Unsafe blood is also a factor in some areas. Throughout the region, injecting drug use offers the epidemic huge scope for growth.

8. Households HIV is found in varying concentrations or amounts in blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, saliva, and tears. HIV does not survive well in the environment, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. Although HIV has been transmitted between family members in a household setting, this type of transmission is very rare. These transmissions are believed to have resulted from contact between skin or mucous membranes and infected blood.

9. Risk of transmission of HIV to HCW HIV Percutaneous Exposure: .05%-0,4% Mucocutaneous Exposue: 0.006-0.05% Hepatitis B Virus Percutaneous Exposure: 9-30% Hepatitis C Virus Percutaneous Exposure: 3-10%

10. Casual Contact Casual contact through closedmouth or "social" kissing is not a risk for transmission of HIV. Because of the potential for contact with blood during "French" or open-mouth kissing, CDC recommends against engaging in this activity with a person known to be infected

11. Casual Contact - II HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from some AIDS patients. It is important to understand that finding a small amount of HIV in a body fluid does not necessarily mean that HIV can be transmitted by that body fluid. HIV has not been recovered from the sweat of HIV-infected persons.

12. Course of HIV Disease Untreated HIV disease typically progresses relentlessly in almost all infected persons from clinically silent infection detectable only by laboratory tests to severely damaged immunologic function, resulting in AIDS. Without treatment, the disease progresses over a median interval of about 10 years, although with great individual variation, and eventually causes death in most, if not all, cases. During the course of HIV disease, a variety of clinical syndromes may occur.

13. AIDS Diagnosis CDC lists numerous opportunistic infections and cancers that, in the presence of HIV infection, constitute an AIDS diagnosis. In 1993, CDC expanded the criteria for an AIDS diagnosis in adults and adolescents to include CD4 + T cell count at or below 200 cells per microliter in the presence of HIV infection

14. Diagnosing HIV - II Persons living with AIDS often have infections of the lungs, brain, eyes, and other organs, and frequently suffer debilitating weight loss, diarrhea, and a type of cancer called Kaposis Sarcoma.

15. Speedometer RNA viral load: up CD4 Cell Count: