CASE STUDY

There is a young girl name Fatima Channel. She has a boyfriend named Quinton Duct. Fatima is 15 and Quinton is 17. They are both of the Caucasian races. They are both still in high school but Quinton also works at Kentucky Fried Chicken after school. Fatima lives with her mother and father and a younger sister. They are really close and love each other very much. Quinton on the other hand live with his father, his father doesn’t accept him for who he really is. Quinton is bisexual; he likes both boys and girls. Quinton has had anal sex with 4 different males and 3 different girls, including Fatima. All 4 males and all 3 girls including Fatima might be infected. Quinton has had unprotected sex with seven people. The disease has now been spread. NONE of the people he had sex with knows that he has HIV and neither does he.

Both Quinton has been experiencing symptoms of HIV. Quinton has experience swollen lymph glands in the groin area, rapid weight loss, and dry cough. Fatima has not yet had symptoms. So Quinton goes to seek help and he finds out that all his symptoms are because he has developed HIV. He hurries home to let Fatima know and when she finds out she is devastated. She is so upset that that same afternoon she call the doctor’s office to set up an appointment so she can also get tested for HIV. Fatima finds out that she is negative. That is a relief off of her chest. She thinks to herself.

The doctor proscribed HARRT for Quinton. HARRT is a Antiretroviral Drug. It stops HIV from multiplying. HARRT is not a cure for HIV but his reduces the multiplication process. Quinton sometimes has difficulties breathing.

Five years later… Quinton is still living. He is struggling with the fact that’s he can’t have sex anymore but he is surviving. He is 22 and is in his third year of college. He is doing his best. Fatima is 20 years old on her second year of college. She is doing very well and is often getting tested for HIV. They are both living strong and surviving. They both have their struggles but Quinton struggles with the worst thing that could happen to someone…. HIV.

Places and People HIV mostly occurs.

HIV is all over the world. It mostly tagets middle and low income places, like AFRICA. HIV/ AIDS mostly infects young bisexual and gay men. Gay men get HIV mostly from having anal sex. "Well anal sex causes high amounts of friction against the rectum wall. The rectum wall is a lot thinner than the vaginal wall, thus tearing is more common." HIV is all around.
 

Symptoms and Treatments of HIV

Symptoms are:

1. Rapid weight loss

2. Dry cough

3. Recurring fevers

4. Profound & unexplained fatigue

5. Swollen lymph glands in the armpit, groin, or neck

6. Diarrhea that lasts more than a week

7. White spots or unusual blemishes on tongue, in mouth, and throat.

8. Pneumonia

9. Pink, brown, red, or purplish blotches on or under the skin, inside mouth, nose, or eyelids

10. Memory loss, depression, and other neurological depression.

11. Headaches

12. Tiredness

         There is no cure for AIDS or HIV right now. There are medications to bay the symptoms of AIDS that have already occurred. Antiretroviral therapy forcibly puts an end to the replication of the HIV virus in the body. HAART is not a cure for HIV.

Side effects of taking the medication HAART are:

1. Collection of fat on the back and abdomen

2. General sick feeling.

3. Headaches

4. Nausea

5. Weakness

       Without treatment of HIV a person can survive 9 to 11 years.Without treatment of AIDS a person can survive 6 to 19 months. HAART reduces the fatality rate by 80%. If you contract the disease you cannot be cured. “HARRT is not a cure for HIV, but has been effective for the past 12 years."

Causes of HIV

HIV is one of the biggest challenges we face in the world. HIV can be deadly. If a person does not take care of them self and have HIV, it can transform into AIDS. HIV was in humans about one hundred years before the first cases in humans began to show in the 1980s. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the cause of AIDS.

HIV is transmitted very easily. There are many ways a person can catch HIV. A person can catch HIV by sharing needles, syringes, and being in contact with infected blood. If someone has HIV and they use a needle for drug use and they give another drug addict (who does not have HIV) the needle and they use it, they can easily get HIV. “HIV is transmitted when infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk enters another person’s body”. A person can also catch HIV by having unprotected sex . Babies on the other hand, catch HIV from their mothers. If the mother is infected from HIV the baby will automatically be infected with the virus too. “Infected women who are or become pregnant can transmit HIV to their newborns and are much more likely to do so if they are not treated effectively”. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. A person cannot be infected by donating blood, from mosquito bites, toilet seats, shaking hands, hugging, sharing eating utensils, eating food that was handled by one with HIV, or spending time  with those who have HIV.  “Anyone who is infected with HIV can transmit it, whether or not they appear sick, have an AIDS diagnosis, or are taking effective treatment for their infection”.

HIV History

HIV has been around for a long time. HIV is the abbreviation for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV is the virus that transforms into AIDS . How? HIV originated in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV was in humans 100 years before the first case of AIDS reported in the U.S. was in 1981. “By the 1080s, however the HIV virus had already been in humans for nearly 100 years” .

10 FACTS OF HIV/AIDS...

1. HIV infects cells of the immune system and destroys their function.
2. HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sex; vaginal, oral, or anal.
3. 3.4 million people live with HIV/AIDS world wide ; 2.7 million were newly infected in 2008.
4. HIV/AIDS is the worlds leading infectious killer claiming 27 million lives. An estimated 2 million people die per year of  HIV/ AIDS.
5. HHART prevents HIV from multiplying in the body.
6. 5.2 million HIV positive people had access hi HARRT in low and middle income countries by the end of 2009.
7. More than 2 million children are living with HIV/AIDS , according to 2008 figures.
8. Mother to child transmission is almost entirely avoidable, but access to prevention interventions are low in middle and low income countries.
9. In 2007 and estimated 2 million deaths occured from HIV.
10. Some key ways to prevent HIV:

• abstain from sex, or practice safe sex like using condoms.
• get tested and treated for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
• avoid injecting drugs, if you do use new and disposeables needles and syrenges.
• ensure that any blood or blood products that you need are tested for HIV. 

http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/hiv/facts/en/index.html