Mass education and awareness about AIDS
методическая разработка по английскому языку (11 класс) по теме

The most dangerous disease of our century

                                (AIDS)

2012

                           Plan:

1. OUR HEALTH IS OUR WEALTH

2. WHAT IS AIDS?

3. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?

 4) HOW DOES IT SPREAD?

5) WHAT IS ITS TREATMENT?

6) HOW TO AVOID AIDS?

OUR HEALTH IS OUR WEALTH…

Only a healthy people can enjoy his life, work well and be happy. To be healthy is very important in the modern life. We must remember   that our health is in our own hands.    Mass education and awareness about AIDS (Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) is the need of the hour for prevention of the disease.

WHAT THEY SPEAK ABOUT AIDS

    "For human kind, AIDS is now on par with the nuclear threat and global warming", said K.R. Narayan, Vice-President of India at the second International AIDS Congress, New Delhi.

    "HIV is not about a virus but primarily about people and society" opined Jonathan Mann.

    "We can say AIDS is a sleeping giant that awakes always to kill" ----- Dr. Bachi J. Karkar.

    FOREWORD

    Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, AIDS, has emerged as one of the most dreadful diseases of the human race .

        The defence mechanism and various other important facts connected with AIDS  will  help  the prevention of the disease which is a worldwide burning problem of this Century.

                                      WHAT  IS AIDS?

    AIDS is a fatal viral disease 

    The term AIDS refers only to the last fatal stage of HIV infection.  However, the term can be used more loosely to refer both the earlier stages of HIV infection and to the later symptomatic stages of the disease.

    In a person with AIDS  white blood cells are destroyed and the immune system is rendered ineffective even against trivial infections.  For an AIDS patient, even a mild and simple infection like common cold might be  fatal.

                                  DISCOVERY OF AIDS

 It was in the summer of 1981 that Gott Lab and Colleagues from New York and Friedman Kein and co-workers from California reported separately to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, USA about a new syndrome of rare form.  It appeared that they had somehow acquired a form of immunodeficiency characterised by the loss of cellular immunity.  By December 1981, well documented reports from New York and Los Angles were published indicating the nature of this illness, its major clinical features, immunological abnormalities and the lethal course.  By 1982, enough was known about this syndrome as a mysterious disease complex, a cluster of manifestations suddenly becoming common in homosexuals.  The syndrome was termed as Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS.

    The first case of AIDS could be diagnosed in the USA only in 1981 .

    Initially the disease was believed to be in homosexuals alone but very soon AIDS was reported in the USA among IV drug addicts who were sharing needles, persons who have received blood transfusion and blood products, haemophilic patients who got factor VIII and babies born to mothers having AIDS.

 The discovery of AIDS in 1980 ended the silent period and inaugurated a phase of discovery and responses from 1981 to 1985.  By early 1983, thanks to epidemiology, the routes of transmission were known and rational preventive recommendations were issued.

  By the time it became clear that AIDS was caused by a transmissible agent with habits similar to hepatitis ‘B' virus, primarily showing heterosexual mode of spread, was reported from some tropical African countries Haiti and Caribbean islands.  The disease in these countries was also spreading through blood transfusions and from infected mothers to their newborn babies.

    In India, the first AIDS case came to light in 1986 and the cause attributed was blood transfusion.  

        Carrying the virus in the body is not the same thing as having AIDS.  One might be infected with virus but shows up no sign of the disease.  And if one is infected, he/she in turn can infect his/her sexual partner with the virus even though the infector continues to be healthy.  Some people have HIV infection but are not sick, at least not yet.  They may become sick later on.

  ENTRY OF THE VIRUS IN THE BODY

    The HIV after entering into the body of a healthy person through sexual act or blood transfusion forms antibodies within 6 weeks to 1-year period*:  in few cases, the process may be delayed by years, perhaps even by decades.  Any serological test during this period will obviously give false negative result.  This is a matter of grave concern as regards the spread of the infection.  During incubation** period, the person is infected with AIDS, but without any clinical evidence of the same and can transmit the infection to others, acting as what is called "carrier of the disease."

                                          SYMPTOMS OF AIDS

    The clinical symptoms complex : bad appetite, rapid weight loss, recurrent fever,   purple skin patches, night sweat,  dermatitis, headache, loose motions, sleeplessness.    Since AIDS has no unique symptoms of its own, it merely flings open the gates to all other infections after exterminating the body's defending army    With the increase in the number of virus particles in the body, it affects nerves and brain.  

                               STAGES OF HIV INFECTION

    The following 5 stages of the disease have been identified:

    The figures are frightening

    According to  survey done, the percentage of AIDS found in different categories of persons is as under:

1.  Homosexuals………73%,       2.  Drug addicts………17%,      

3.  Heterosexuals………1%,       4.  Haemophilic………1%,      

5.  Blood transfusion………2%       6.  HIV infected parent's newborn ………1%

7.  Rest………5% (include patients with Cirrhosis of Liver, Renal failures needing dialysis and kidney transplants and surgical operation cases, etc.)

HIGH RISK GROUP

    Homosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes and haemophilics are put in the high risk groups from whom there are greater chances of the spread of HIV infection.  Surveys are also being conducted on these categories of persons.  Rest are put in another group i.e. people who get HIV infection from saliva, tears and urine of the AIDS patients.

                           TREATMENT, CURE AND MEDICINES

    At present, there is no cure for AIDS and no medicine available to protect the people against it.

    Although no permanent cure has been devised as yet, it is believed that AIDS patients can be kept alive for 2 to 3 years.  There is a good chance that they might benefit from the optimistic treatment modalities now being developed.

                                              CONCLUSION

    AIDS affects every one; men, women and children over the world.  No one is immune to it.