Where the HIV Originated From - Research Paper Example

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Introduction Human immunodeficiency virus is a retrovirus which causes AIDS. This virus attacks the T helper cellsin the immune system. The retroviruses take long to multiply and affect the whole body immune system. Lentrivirus affects animals but the one that was first discovered was the simian immunodeficiency virus that was first found in chimpanzees. It has now been believed that HIV originated from monkeys because the simian immunodeficiency virus resembles the two types of HIV. That is HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-2 resembles the virus in white monkeys from western Africa while the HIV-1 that was discovered in 1999 resembles the simian immunodeficiency virus found in chimpanzees. Theories has been used to try to explain how the virus crossed from animals to human but all of them does not show evidence that indeed HIV originated from animals. For instance, it is believed that the virus crossed as a result of eating monkey meat. The virus is believed to have originated from Africa as monkeys from Asia and South America has not been found with the virus (Worobey et al., 2008). HIV is an epidemic. It has spread so fast in the world and causes a lot of harm in countries. For instance, a lot of money has been put aside to fight the spread of HIV. This affects the country’s economy. On the other hand, HIV is taking dominance to the young and middle aged people in a country. The group that is most productive. With this it is clear that HIV is indeed a problem that needs to be taken care of seriously. The productive age groups of young and middle aged are endangered thus burdening a country with children and elderly who are not in a position to provide for their living. This paper will look at HIV as the problem worldwide that needs to be understood well and necessary precaution taken to reduce its spread. Background Information The first case of HIV was discovered in early 1980’s in the USA. Gay men displayed symptoms of opportunistic infections like cancer. HIV/AIDS did not come in to the picture but those men seemed to suffer from a common syndrome; their infections resisted treatment. HIV was later discovered. HIV has been spreading fast in the world because of several reasons such as blood transfusion, immigration, use of injectible drugs, unprotected sexual behaviors and transmission of mother to child. With the current globalization, most people are traveling from their countries with the purpose of trade. There is no restriction of migration of people who are infected with the HIV virus. People travel and mingle with other people from different countries without caring of their HIV status. They get in to sexual relationships with different people and when people returns to their country the trend continues. This leads to HIV spreading at a very high rate. HIV spread in the USA has been believed to have been fuelled by gay men. The first man to spread it was named as Zero who was a gay and spread it to many partners who in turn spread it to other partners (Fears, 2005). Blood transfusion is common in the medical field. Many people need blood and as a result people have been donating their blood to assist this people. In the USA blood donors used to be paid and this attracted all kinds of donors and because at the early stages of HIV doctors did not know how fast the virus could spread, blood was not screened for HIV. The blood was sent to other countries worldwide and many people got infected with the HIV. People who use injectible drugs such as heroin have also played a big role in spread of the HIV. This is because of sharing needles without caring the HIV status of the people they are sharing with. There are no people that are known to be resistant to the HIV (Zhu et al.,. 1998). Treatment Today the medical field has been giving antiretroviral therapy to people who are infected with HIV. Several tests are carried out to determine the kind of drug that is suitable for each patient. Highly active anti retroviral therapy was introduced a decade ago. The drug includes AZT, septrine among others. The patients have been responding well to treatment and life expectancy has increased but this does not assure decreased mortality. National institute of allergy and infectious diseases have done research that showed that 33 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS and that there are 56300 new infections of HIV every year worldwide. Prevention of spread of HIV has been the main effort worldwide. Many researches have been done. This includes clinical trials to find out therapies for HIV infected people. Researches are still been conducted in search of a vaccine that can be used to prevent HIV. Vaccine research has diverted from classic vaccine to immune response. The research has diverted from protecting from the virus to changing the nature of infection. According to this body, vaccine has never cleared the virus from the body but all it can do is to suppress it to prevent further multiplication (Frøland et al, 1988). Gras & colleagues,(2009) reported on their study that people who gets diagnosed with HIV and starts medical treatment has their life expectancy increased to almost the same level as those who do not have it. The study was carried out in Netherlands and 5500 people were involved in the research between 2004 and 2008.They carried out a test to the first testers and those who used to test frequently. This was differentiated between those that can be identified as having gotten the virus within a period of one year. The first time testers were classified as those who did not know when they got the virus. The findings were that most of those who were first testers were positive compared to those who used to test frequently. They also found that most of the first testers were immigrants in Netherlands. From their findings, women and those who practiced heterosexuality were more compared to gays. From this I agree with the study findings because most people have been ignorant on going for HIV test especially women and those who practice heterosexuality as compared to gay. The research found that most of the gays go for testing after every six months. This calls for action to encourage all people to go for HIV testing so as they can start treatment therapy early to increase their life expectancy. It is clear from the study that those who tested frequently and started treatment had high CD4 count than those who tested late. This shows that early diagnosis indeed increases life expectancy. This is a good strategy to go about with the HIV epidemic as people will remain productive for long. Conclusion From the researches there is no clear definition of where the HIV originated from but it is clear that HIV is indeed an epidemic. This is because it is spreading very fast worldwide. A lot of money is being used to carry out researches on HIV and how to reduce its spread. Money is also being used in purchase of anti retroviral drugs in order to reduce the effects of HIV and opportunistic infections to those who are already infected. Reference List Fears, D. (2005). Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy. The Washington Post. Frøland, S. et al., (1988). HIV-1 infection in Norwegian family before 1970. The Lancet 331(8598) Gras, L & collogues (2009).Athena study. Journal AIDS. Netherland Worobey, M. et. Al., (2008). Direct Evidence of Extensive Diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960. Nature, 455(7213) Zhu, T et. al (1998). An African HIV-1 Sequence from 1959 and Implications for the Origin of the Epidemic. Nature, 391(6667) Read More