What is AIDS

AIDS (the acquired immune deficit syndrome) is the disease of the immune system of the human organism that causes its destruction.

AIDS  is the final stage of HIV-infection, it is the disease caused by human immune deficit virus (HIV). The virus affects the immune system, and the organism becomes unprotected against even non-aggressive microbes.

HIV lives only inside the human organism and can not be outside it. It is destroyed almost immediately after its exposure at the open air. HIV belongs to the viruses with the genetic information encoded in ribonudeic acid (RNA). For the reproduction purposes this virus has to implant the own genetic information in DNA of the master cells. After that the cell starts to work for the virus: it produces the various components and composes of them the new cells of virus of human immune deficit.

There are 3 types of immune deficit viruses:

• HIV-1 is the main agent of HIV-infection, it is often the cause of AIDS disease. This virus is wide-spread in the North and South America, in Europe and Asia.
• HIV-2 is the less active analogue of HIV-1, it rarely causes the typical symptoms of the acquired immune deficit and it is not so wide-spread. It was for the first time picked out by Luc Montagnier (Paster Institute in Paris, France) from the blood of the people born in Guinea, who had the confirmed diagnosis of the acquired immune deficit. From the point of view of its evolution HIV-2 is really neighbouring to HIV-1. The West Africa is the major area of its expansion.
• MIV is the monkey immune deficit virus; it had appeared 10 thousand years ago. At the present time the numerous MIV strains, classified according to the six main classes, were fixed among almost 30 types of the African monkeys. According to one of the theories, HIV is the changed virus of monkey immune deficit, transferred to the people as a result of using the monkey meat for food.

HIV-2, according to its serological (immunological) properties, has the intermediary position between HIV-1 and MIV. They may probably derive from one predecessor and pass the separate ways of evolution.

The history of HIV revelation

AIDS in Ukraine*

The number of HIV-infected persons in the world has passed at the present time the rate of 40 mln.; and 10  mln. of people had already died as a result of it. More than 5 thousand of persons become infected every day, and that forms the base to announce the AIDS epidemic.

Ukraine takes the 2nd place in Europe and the 5th place in the world according to the rates of development of HIV-infection epidemic. 1 % of the adult population in our country is infected.

The most virus-infected regions of Ukraine

During the last years the quantity of the youth taking the drugs since the age of 10–14 years, increased for 78,1%.

The quantity of HIV-positive women also increases (up to 39 % in the year of 2004), and the sexual way of transfer of the disease becomes more active. The number of HIV-positive pregnant women and of the children born with HIV increased in Ukraine in 3 times during the past years.

The fact of expansion of HIV-infection to all the social and age groups of population in Ukraine has been approved. The peak of the epidemic is expected 6–8 years later, at that time, if we do not alter our attitude to AIDS, even all the budget of the Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine could not be sufficient to prevent the expansion of this disease.

74856 HIV-infected citizens and 310 foreigners were officially registered in Ukraine during the period of the years 1987–2005. 8478 children are among the HIV-infected citizens of Ukraine. 8614 adults and 304 children have AIDS disease and 5217 adults and 150 children died as a result of AIDS.

12491 HIV-infected persons, including 2293 children were registered during the year of 2004. This number include 5778 injection drug users. 2647 adults and 96 children got AIDS, and 1742 adults and 33 children of them had died.

* According to the official data of Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine.

Ways of HIV transfer

		70–80%  — unprotected sexual contact (without the condom)
		5–10% the joint use of syringes, needles or of the other injection devices
		5–10% the transfusion of the contaminated blood
		5–10% the transfer of virus from HIV-positive mother to the child during the pregnancy, delivery and breast-feeding
		2–3% use of non-sterile instruments for the tattoos, piercing and in stomatology
		1–2% use of the common shaving things, of the tooth brushes belonging to the others, with the evident blood spots.
		< 1% transplantation of the organs of HIV-infected person.

HIV is transferred with the blood, sperm, vaginal secretions and mother’s milk.
HIV is not transferred via the other fluids of the organism (such as spittle, perspiration, eye tears, urine and faeces). That is due to the fact that the certain minimum concentration of the virus is required to enable the infection. Thus, the drop of the blood of the size that may be placed on the top of the needle, may contain the quantity of virus required for the infection, and the volume of spittle with equal content of the same virus makes 4 litres.

It is important to remember that HIV can never be transferred with:

• spittle
• eye tears
• perspirations
• stings
• kisses
• respiratory (in air)
• orally (with water or foodstuff)
• shake-hands
• use of the common plates and dishes, towels.

Three conditions of HIV transfer:

1. The virus is to be present in the organism or in the fluids of the human organism.
2. The quantity of the virus is to be sufficient for the infection.
3. The virus is to get at the right place (mucous tunic or blood stream).

AIDS influence on the organism

When a person has been infected by HIV, the virus starts to destroy the immune system that is responsible for the protection of the organism from the diseases. The person living with HIV may be good — looking for the years and even not to know that he is infected. But the virus continues to destroy the cells of the immune system, and, when the number of the cells fells below the critical rate, the person becomes vulnerable for such diseases that are usually avoided. AIDS diagnosis is usually announced several years after HIV infection, when the person suffers from one or several general diseases. For example, the earliest signs of progression of HIV infection, that means the increase of immune deficit, include the thrush of the mouth, the incomprehensible increase of the temperature, hyperhidrosis at night, diarrhea, loss of the weight, often acute respiratory infections, shingles, etc.

HIV-infection is characterized by the range of the following features:

• Still no cases of treatment from HIV are registered.
• The infected person may feel himself good during the long period of time, with reservation of his working capacity, and, at the same time, represent the source of infection.
• High lethality. The lethal outcome in this case may appear 10 years after infection and even later.

Fever episode 1 day — 2 months		Pre-AIDS 1 month — 10 years		AIDS 1-2 years (without the treatment)
During this stage 20–50 % of infected persons may suffer from the fever period lasting for 1 day and up to 2 months. It is featured with the lymphadenopathy, sore throat, spotty eruption, sometimes with encephalitis symptoms. Sometimes the people recognize these symptoms as the ordinary tonsillitis and make no clinic consultations. During this period the antibodies to HIV-infection, that may be fixed by the test systems, still are not produced by the organism. That’s why this period is sometimes called as the period of seronegative gap. That means the absence of the antibodies and the presence of the important quantity of infection.		During the second stage of the disease (pre-AIDS) a man starts to be anxious about his health, he suffers with the frequent herpetic infections, fungal lesions, nail lesions, troubles of tunica mucosa of mouth. During this period the infected person may feel himself still good, but fells ill more often, that reflects the depression of immune status.		The AIDS stage is the final stage. During this stage a man may suffer from not one, but several diseases at the same time. That may the meningitis, pneumonia, herpetic infection, gastric and gullet thrush, moniliasis meningitis. Virus, herpetic and fungal infections may develop in parallel. The consequences of infection may be exposed with various intensity depending on the stage of suppression of immune system. A man may even die as a result of action of the infection.

The existing data approve that the modern methods of treatment can not completely eliminate the transfer of HIV from the infected person to the non-infected one. Thus, to distinguish from the patients suffering from the other infections, the HIV-infected person remains the potential source of infection during the years after his contamination and even after the death.

How to protect yourself?

The transfer of infection during the sexual contact without the condom is the most common way of HIV-infection. Thus, the use of the condom for each sexual contact is the most reliable way to protect yourself from HIV.

Sex may be safe only when the condom is used from the beginning to the end of each sexual contact and if it remains undamaged.

Innotex condoms were tested in A. Furnier Institute, Paris (the WHO center for the research of sexually transmitted diseases) in December of the year 1988. During the tests Innotex condoms were verified for penetration of some viruses, being of even smaller size than HIV (AIDS). The results of the tests approved that no virus could penetrate through the membrane of the condom.

The most modern test methods applied in the Virus Oncology Laboratory of Paster Institute in Paris, in September of the year 1989, confirmed that Innotex condoms form the unconquerable barrier for the human immune deficit virus.