AIDS is a condition which is always fatal. There are retroviral drug cocktails which can be used to slow HIV in compromising the human immune system, delaying the onset of AIDS. The syndrome indicates a compromised immune system. Generally what kills the AIDS-infected person are the secondary infections that invade the body as the immune system is so compromised, it cannot fight them off.
AIDS is significant because of how widespread it is and there is no known cure or vaccine. It is currently a pandemic, with infected people on every continent barring Antarctica. There are more than 33 million people worldwide who contracted the disease in 2007. In Africa, 33 percent of all Africans are infected with AIDS. One of the reasons that this disease is so prevalent is that the majority of its symptoms are minor. A person may have AIDS and not know it and unknowingly pass it on to other sexual partners.
Researchers have been able to trace HIV to a species of monkey in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though they carried this virus, they did not develop any of the signs of AIDS. The first known cases of AIDS were in San Francisco, California in 1981. They were associated with a number of bath houses with a reputation for solely entertaining gay men. It is unknown how the virus was able to jump from one species to another, though some bodily fluids would've had to be exchanged.
AIDS was identified by the Center For Disease Control at the center of great controversy. At the time it was believed that only homosexual men were susceptible. This belief enraged the gay community, claiming it was another attempt to justify prejudicial treatment against gay men.
Once many people began dying from AIDS and HIV was identified as the cause several years later, was AIDS taken seriously. This denial may have given the disease ample opportunity to spread within that period.
People with AIDS display fever, night sweats, chills, weight loss, swollen glands, and anemia not associated with any secondary infection. Nearly every organ in the body is affected, riddled with open sores and lesions. Leukemia, random tumors, as well as Pneumocystis pneumonia are also common. As HIV affects the white blood cell count, and AIDS is the condition at which the immune system is greatly weakened. Bone marrow, the site of white blood cell production, is almost entirely used up. This results in a lower overall blood count, a tendency toward hemophilia and lower blood oxygenation levels. It is also for this reason that someone with AIDS will typically be very pale and sallow.
There are several misconceptions regarding AIDS. The first states that AIDS is a communicable disease. This is not technically true. AIDS is a condition resulting from an entirely disabled immune system caused by HIV. It is HIV which is transferred from one person to another, not AIDS. Another potentially deadly belief is that HIV is transferred through vaginal intercourse only. This is not true. HIV is transferred through bodily fluids: semen, seminal fluid, blood and breast milk. Meaning any form of intercourse which results in the transfer of these fluids is likely to transfer the virus as well. It can also be passed to babies by their mother's milk. Blood transfusions and the sharing of needles also may result in AIDS as well.