HIV virus a cause of concern for many worldwide

Daniel Bratcher

Although HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) has become a growing epidemic over the course of the past couple of decades, some students feel that it is not necessary for them to get tested.”I’m not sexually active,” said Walt Porter, a 19-year-old Mesa Community College student, when asked why he hasn’t had a HIV test.

“I am not afraid to ask for one; I just feel that I don’t need one right now because I am not having sex.”

Many are unaware when stricken with HIV because they don’t take the test.

In areas of the world that are impoverished, like the continent of Africa, less than one percent of the sexually active population have been tested.

There are many ways how someone can acquire HIV through sexual intercourse, blood transfusions, and mother-to-child transmissions being the most common.

HIV is a virus that affects the immune system until it is too weak to defend itself.

It leaves the body wide open for other diseases and cancers that can kill people that become sick when infected.

AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome), which is commonly mistaken with HIV, happens when the body is infected by an opportunistic infection, such as pneumonia or a type of cancer.

“Disease of the young people” infects three million people under the age of 25 each year worldwide, 14,000 new infections each day, 42,000 will be infected in the United States in 2008. Since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981, 25 million people worldwide have been killed by the disease since that time.

HIV affects a lot of the younger generation.

Activists have been reaching out to educate about the virus and to keep the younger generation safe.

“A lot of the information that is available about this virus is not broadcasted enough to kids and even people my age,” said Larry Wright, a 35-year-old HIV activist in Phoenix.

“We want to tell them the offers in treatment and how to protect each other.”

Chris Daley is another HIV activist from Phoenix, who will be reaching out to the younger generation in October at the yearly Rainbow Festival.

“We want to offer alternatives into where to get tested and if you’ve tested positive, where to get treatment,” Daley said.

Currently, there is no vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS and the only known method of prevention for both is to avoid exposure to the virus.

There is a treatment called post-exposure prophylaxis, which is believed to reduce the infection if taken quickly as possible.

Since its introduction in 1996, highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, has become an effective tool for HIV-inflicted people.

The procedure involves combinations of at least three drugs belonging to two types of antiretroviral agents.

Scientists will continue to try to find the cure for the world’s most crippling diseases for the next coming decades.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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