World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day is held on the first of December every year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988. More than 90,000 people are currently living with HIV in the UK and globally an estimated 33.3 million people have HIV. More than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007 have died from the virus, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.

Today, many scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment, there are laws to protect people living with HIV and we understand so much more about the condition. But despite this, people do not know the facts about how to protect themselves and others from HIV, and stigma and discrimination remain a reality for many people living with HIV. World AIDS Day is important as it reminds the public and Government that HIV has not gone away – there is still a vital need to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education.

What is HIV? HIV stands for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is a virus which attacks the body's immune system — the body's defense against diseases. HIV can be passed on through infected bodily fluids, most commonly via sex without a condom or by sharing infected needles, syringes or other injecting drug equipment.

It has been postulated that only a vaccine can halt the pandemic because a vaccine would possibly cost less, thus being affordable for developing countries, and would not require daily treatments. However, even after almost 30  years of research, HIV-1 remains a difficult target for a vaccine.

Research to improve current treatments includes decreasing side effects of current drugs, further simplifying drug regimens to improve adherence, and determining the best sequence of regimens to manage drug resistance. A number of studies have shown that measures to prevent opportunistic infections can be beneficial when treating patients with HIV infection or AIDS. Vaccination against hepatitis A and B is advised for patients who are not infected with these viruses and are at risk of becoming infected. Patients with substantial immunosuppression are also advised to receive prophylactic therapy for Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP), and many patients may benefit from prophylactic therapy for toxoplasmosis and Cryptococcus meningitis as well.

Researchers have discovered an abzyme that can destroy the protein gp120 CD4 binding site. This protein is common to all HIV variants as it is the attachment point for B lymphocytes and subsequent compromising of the immune system.

In Berlin, Germany, a 42-year-old leukemia patient, Timothy Ray Brown (also referred to as the "Berlin Patient"), infected with HIV for more than a decade was given an experimental transplant of bone marrow with cells that contained an unusual natural variant of the CCR5 cell-surface receptor. This CCR5-Δ32 variant has been shown to make some cells from people who are born with it resistant to infection with some strains of HIV. Almost two years after the transplant, and even after the patient reportedly stopped taking antiretroviral medications, HIV has not been detected in the patient's blood. As of December 2010, three years after the transplant, Brown was still free of any detectable HIV in his blood and was described, in a paper in the journal Blood, as "cured. "

Please show your support

Wear a condom when having a sex especially if you are having a sex with stranger or cheating partner!!!