I've just gone to use an old notebook and found some notes from a seminar I went to a year or so ago on HIV/AIDS, and thought I would share the information I got from it. I never had a clue before this seminar on the difference between HIV and AIDS and I'm always correcting people now when they say the wrong one, even if it's just a passing comment as people really should know what it is - lets face it, it's not the 80's anymore and we're free to speak out on such an issue.
So firstly, some jargon:
Epidemic - an outbreak of disease which is large spread or exceeds expectation
Endemic - smaller scale outbreak of diseases
HIV - 'human immuno-deficiency virus' - it is transmitted/contracted through bodily fluids (sex, needle sharing, through breast milk, during birth and from blood transfusions). It brings down the whole immune system so that the body is unable to fight other diseases; IT IS A VIRUS
AIDS - this comes after contracting HIV as the virus enters your body and reduces your amount of white blood cells which means it is easier for other viruses to enter and work better. AIDS is the visibility of other infections, the addition of new viruses to your body and the reduction of the immune system's efficiency. Only once the white blood cells drop to a certain amount will you be medically diagnosed as having AIDS.
ARV - 'anti-retroviral drugs' are drugs which don't cure AIDS but make it harder for further viruses to penetrate
1st Line - A patient who has never had ARV
2nd Line - A patient whose body has become immune to ARV's
And some dates:
whenever-1900 - HIV passed from apes to humans
Early 1970 - HIV enters the USA
1982 - AIDS "invented"
1984 - Aids affecting Africans
1987 - First HIV/AIDS drug approved (AZT)
2000 - Less than 1% of AIDS patients get treatment
2001 - Cheapest ARV drug cost $10,000 per patient per year
2003 - The August 30 Agreement states that a country can produce cheaper or their own version of a drug and export it to other countries in similar need
2004 - America launches PEPFAR (President's Emergency Fund)
Patent Pool:
Due to Intellectual Property, there's a difficulty for countries to produce cheaper drugs. However, ideas/patents can be shared to either innovate new products and/or make them cheaper. These are then distributed to generic manufacturers who compete with others so the price is dropped, and fair royalties are then given back to pharmaceutical companies.
I hope that has been illuminating.
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