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A- Aquired
I- Immmuno
D- Deficiency
S- Syndrome
Throughout history, the world has seen many different epidemics: The Black Plague, Leprosy, Small Pox, Cholera,Tuberculosis to name a few. More recently, the Aids virus has claimed the lives of millions of people world wide. Along with the devastating affects of the people who have lost their lives, there is also the social rejection that comes along with the fear of not fully understanding the disease. In the past, diseases have been seen as punishments for sins, but even though we know now that this is not true, people who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS are still looked down upon in our society. There are many misconseptions about the disease, people dont' understand what Aids really is, and because of this people who have tested HIV positive have not been getting the respect they deserve from society.
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How do people get infected with HIV?
- Since viruses can't multiply on their own, they invade the cells of thier host. This is done by injectin thier DNA into the host cells.
- In the case of the Aids virus, it invades CD4 cells, special cells used by your immune system to help you fight germs and viruses.
- The Aids virus is able to enter the CD4 cells, it does this using a special chemical. The virus uses "reverse trancriptase" to enter the nucleus of the cell.
- Another enzyme, "integrase" is used to re-code the DNA
- The virus inserts it's own codes into the DNA in order for the cell to produce more infected cells.
- The infected CD4 cell become an " HIV factory" producing viral cell parts which are then assembled by the enzyme Protease.
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