About HIV
HIV is a cytopathic form of a family of retrovirus, which includes the T-cell leukemia virus. HIV is closely related to the lent virus family of certain animal retroviruses, examples of which include: visna virus of sheep, equine infectious anemia virus, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The gradual loss of T-cells which are essential for fighting infection leads to the eventual collapse of the immune system resulting in AIDS, after which the individual is usually overwhelmed by opportunistic infections resulting in death.
The AIDS pandemic is the most serious human health epidemic of modern times with an estimated 18 million adults and one million children infected worldwide with HIV which causes AIDS.
The number infected is doubling approximately every 5 years with predictions that by the year 2010 there will be approximately 48 million adults and approximately 6 million children that are HIV infected with 5,000 new cases being added every day.
In the US, one out of every 75 men and one in 700 women were HIV positive in 2001 according the World Health Organization. The infection rate in women is increasing rapidly and is expected to equal the incidence in men before long.
In Baltimore, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, AIDS is now the leading cause of death among adults 24-44 years old. The number of persons reported dying from AIDS in the US by the Center for Disease Control appears to be leveling off at around 30,000 per year, however, the demographics for infection in the US are changing and the epidemic is accelerating rapidly in third world countries.
Treatment cost of a patient with AIDS from diagnosis until death in western countries has risen from $57,000 in 1998 to $130,000 in 2003 and continues to escalate. Furthermore, the cumulative cost of AIDS treatment in the US has increased 48% over the past three years to almost $16 billion in 2002. The yearly costs for treating an AIDS patient range from $393 in Sub-Saharan Africa (herbal remedies) to $60,000 in the US for western care and medicines. Treatment for AIDS or preventive measures for HIV infection (education, condoms, needle exchange programs, etc.) in Third World countries are generally either ineffective unavailable, or totally unaffordable.
Despite the billions spent on AIDS research each year, no definitive treatments have yet been developed. Drug therapies have had limited success and few drugs have been even marginally effective and fully approved by the FDA for use. Although these drugs delay the appearance for symptoms for AIDS, they do not significantly prolong life and often show severe and toxic side effects.
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