The Colon Story

The title is a working progress and a pun (email me if you understand it!) This is where I summarize those long-winded, complicated, bewildering articles about medicine that you look at with optimism but think, "no".

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HIV

by India Clare - 20:18 on 16 November 2011

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive.

History
The origin of HIV is ambiguous, but it is suspected that it originates from chimpanzees in Africa, as they were eaten for food, during the French and Belgian colonies.

How it works
When HIV first enters the body it replicates rapidly and locks onto our immune (CD4) cells, this is known as a “viral load”. We then release antibodies in order to defeat this virus, however some HIV cells hide themselves in the DNA of our CD4 cells, lying dormant for many years. Throughout life we expose ourselves to a lot of viruses, which we try to fight. The more we fight the more active the HIV becomes. Slowly over time HIV makes our immune systems so weak that we can die from a common cough.

Prevention
Some quick and cheap ways of preventing HIV are:
• Use a condom every time
• Clean needles for drug users
• Male circumcision (cuts transmission by 60%)
Future methods of preventing HIV are vaginal gels and vaginal rings. These are a popular choice as it gives women some control over protecting themselves against the disease. The rings constantly release the drug, and need only be changed once a month.
Vaccines have not been used yet, as it is too risky. Most vaccines are made up of dead or half-living diseased cells, but with HIV it is too risky.

Elizabeth Pisani
Elizabeth (has a PhD in infectious diseases and has spent the last 15 years working against HIV) said, “We need to spend more time understanding how behavior, politics and economics undermine or contribute to success. HIV prevention can only succeed on any major scale if it works on all four levels.”

Comment from Erin Brent at 20:24 on 16 November 2011.

This looks fab! So great to see teens getting out there and inspiring their peers.

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