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H3 The hidden spread of AIDS
- Most infections such as measles, flu or colds spread very quickly. One person catches the infection and passes it to others within a few days. Then, unless they are very weak, they recover quickly.
- However, AIDS is very different. It is caused by a virus called the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV). The virus attacks cells in the blood that help the body fight off infection. This virus is very unusual because it can take many years to cause serious damage to the body. People with the virus usually do not know they are infected and look healthy. There is no cure for this virus.
- Once a person is infected by HIV, it slowly damages their body’s ability to fight off infection. This may take three or four years in a weaker person and ten or more years in a healthy person. They begin to suffer more from common infections and diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), skin and throat infections, fevers, skin cancer, pneumonia and diarrhoea. Once this happens, a person becomes very weak; they have developed AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). This means that HIV has seriously damaged the body’s ability to fight disease. Without treatment, most people will die within a short space of time.
- We may know of a few people seriously ill and dying from AIDS. However, we cannot know who is infected by HIV because they still look healthy.
Discussion
- Do we have any useful ways of describing HIV infection in our culture? How can we explain what it means to children?
- Why is HIV different from most other viruses?
- How do people know if they are already infected with HIV?
- What terms do people use to describe AIDS in our community? Are these helpful?
- What ideas could we use to describe the fact that we cannot see the full impact of HIV infection and AIDS?
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This page was last updated on 11 August 2005
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