Hiv Aids And Women
Women and HIV/AIDS disease infects 40 million people. In 2006 alone 4.3 million people were infected by the disease and 2.9 million died as a result. The number of HIV/AIDS patients is growing each year; and of course the majority of these numbers occur in the Sub-Saharan Africa (57%) (Churchworldservice). Since the beginning of the HIV in the 1980s people have been trying to find a cure, and so far nothing has happened. As it will be discussed later in the paper, the epidemic has grave effects on the life of the patient and on the family and community of the person carrying the disease. Almost half of the people living with HIV/AIDS today are women and we are going to find out what is HIV/AIDS and how it effects women’s lives. The human body depends largely on a white blood cell called CD4. This cell is normally in charge of fighting viruses with the help of its receptor which is located on its surface. When the Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) enters the body it automatically attaches itself to the receptor of the CD4 and infects it (youandaids). Once the Virus is in the cell, it transcribes its RNA to the cell’s DNA of the white blood cell.(Cohen,43). Since the virus is now in control of the DNA of the white blood cell it determines the “actions” of the cell. These actions include the replication of the virus. Thus every time an infected cell is activated it uses the host cell’s division mechanism to produce replicas of the virus (youandaids). Consequently, the number of white blood cells decreases in the body as more and more are infected with HIV. Since the white blood cells are the once being infected, the body’s immunity system as a whole is a stake (chem.wisc.edu) Once a person is infected with HIV, the disease manifests itself over a number of stages. During each stage an HIV-positive person experiences a set of different symptoms. During the first stage a person may or may not experience a number of flu- like symptoms....