PLEASE NOTE: THIS POST WAS WRITTEN IN 2008. SINCE THEN, MANY THINGS IN THIS FIELD HAVE CHANGED. WHILE THIS INFORMATION WAS RELIABLE AT THE TIME, IT MAY NO LONGER BE SO. IF YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR HEALTH INFORMATION ON HIV/AIDS IN PARTICULAR, PLEASE CONSULT A RELIABLE RESOURCE WRITTEN IN THE PAST YEAR OR TWO. THIS POST HAS BEEN PRESERVED AS A WRITING SAMPLE ONLY.
This December 1 marks the 20th World AIDS day. On this day, people from around the world come together to draw attention to this global pandemic and to encourage HIV and AIDS prevention. A primary focus for this day is to encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in high prevalence countries and around the world.
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a type of virus that attacks our immune system, causing it to function less well or not at all. In the early stages of infection (the first 5 to 10 years), there are often no obvious symptoms: many infected people do not know they are infected. However, as the virus continues to attack the immune system, the infected person starts to get sick. This is because all kinds of “opportunistic infections”, which their bodies would have normally fought off, attack their weakened immune system. (source)