AIDS

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome)

AIDS is the name given to the late stages of HIV infection. First time it was discovered in 1981 in Los Angeles, California. By 1983 the retrovirus responsible for it. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), was first described, and since then millions around the world have died from contracting the disease. It is thought to have originated in central Africa from monkeys or to have developed from contaminated vaccines used in the world’s first mass immunization for polio.

AIDS is acquired mostly by sexual contact either through homo- or heterosexual practice by having unprotected sex via vaginal or anal intercourse. The routes of infection include infected blood, semen, and vaginal fluid. The virus can also be transmitted by blood by-products, through maternofetal infection. Maternofetal infection is where the virus is transmitted by an infected mother to the unborn child in the uterus. Or by maternal blood during parturition, or by breast milk consumption upon birth. Intravenous drug abuse also is a cause.