An AIDS is a disease which affects human immune system, the term HIV stands for Human immunodeficiency virus. AIDS through time kills cells that make up our immune system and defend the human body from variety of diseases, tumor cells, different viruses, parasites and other harmful microorganisms.

There is a big difference between individuals that are HIV positive and those that have fully developed AIDS disease. Term HIV positive only means that there is a virus present in the body, which may not develop, or show any symptoms in a period up to ten years.

Individuals that have developed an AIDS don’t have a healthy or any immune system and they usually die from other infections not related to HIV virus.

Virus is usually transmitted through sexual intercourse, in some cases through blood transfusion, heroin addicts using the same needle over and over, birth or breastfeeding.

It can not be transmitted by normal social activities and it has not been proven that it can be transmitted by oral sex.

At the end of 2008 world health organization estimated that there is 31.3 million people, infected by HIV virus and that every year there is 2.5 million new cases from which 300 000 are children.

The disease is most spread in Africa due to the poverty, and there is about 22 million infected.

First data about infected people comes from Africa from 1950 but in 1979 first one to acknowledge the disease was the American scientist Joel Weisman, he noticed a group of young men with the same symptoms of fever, they lost weight and they were all part of the homosexual community, that way the virus was also known as “gay cancer” at first. Little after virus spread first to the heroin users, spread of virus alarmed people and the scientists which knew little about new disease they were dealing with.

In 1980 American scientists noticed another group of people that which were more prone to the disease and they were not a part of a homosexual community, and they were not drug users, those people were Haitians, an accident in which French geologist got infected by a blood transfusion showed that the disease was present in Haiti before 1979.

Soon after that Americans started to blame Haitians that they were a main source of disease because of their unhealthy living conditions, bisexuality and even voodoo, there also came an attitude that only the “bad people” got infected.

There is one man that made his mark in history in a bad way and he is Geatan Dugas.

He was a good looking homosexually oriented employee of an Air Canada who infected around 250 people on his traveling routs. In 1982 doctors diagnosed him with a HIV virus but he refused to change his lifestyle and continued to have intercourse with people telling only some of them that he has “gay cancer”. He is also known as one of the first internationals spreader of the virus.

This event only enhanced the false thoughts of scientists that the virus is only spread between homosexuals.

Rarely any disease plants fear in people minds in the western world as this one, and those that are infected are usually outcasts of the modern society.

There is no known cure for the disease there are only ways to prolong patients lives through a variety of medications.

Tags: AIDS, aids history, AIDS virus, HIV, hiv infected, HIV virus, immune system