HIV Virus Essay Example For Students

HIV Virus Essay The Invisible Tyrants A Brief History of the H.I.V. Virus February 27th, 1994 Frank Mancini emailprotected Supposedly 1.6 million years have passed since the earliest human like ancestors. 250,000 years since the earliest Homo Sapiens and 1962 years since Jesus Christ was executed. Although not everyone agrees on whether the existence of Christ is true or not, that is what the standard calendar defining days and time is based upon and that is the way we deal economically and politically worldwide. Millions of years have passed, civilizations have appeared and disappeared, we have had harmonious as well as destructive societies and fought for the evil and the good. Dictators have come and gone and missions out of this world have been accomplished, from walks on the moon to the launch of dozens of satellites scattered throughout the universe. We call it progress, evolution, intellectual advancement. Although in some parts of the world we still have wars being fought and dictators in power, there are other societies which consider themselves at the peak of evolution and progress, these societies are part of the first world and western civilization. They are able to create state of the art automobiles, luxurious homes, efficient and organized industries, automated and complex computerized machinery and atomic weapons. Most of these humans are governed by a democratic system and a belief of freedom. This first world like the third world is also populated by Dictators with the only difference that they are special, unseen a naked eyes, they are invisible and invincible. These invisible tyrants are called microorganisms. Underdeveloped countries as well as developed countries are at the mercy of the invisible tyrants which come in the form of: Viruses, Bacteria, Fungi and Parasites. The most dangerous of these is the Virus, some with limited powers such as the flu is able of enslaving humans to a week or two of soreness, stuffy nose and may lead up to minor bronchial complication. Then there is a more controlling, severe, non-discriminating, merciless tyrant with enormous corrupting influences infiltrate all of civilization rising mountains of sorrow and oceans of pain Its not just submicroscopic pathogens consisting of a particle of nucleic acid enclosed in proteins and able to replicate only within a living cell. Its more complex and responsible for the enormous chaos and fear in the world today, bringing outward the basic faults of us humans, placing in the light our lack of awareness and abundance of ignorance. This complex and confusing Dictator, king of all tyrants is called Human, Immunodeficiency, Virus or H.I.V. The H. I.V. its not just a virus, its a retrovirus and one of the few retroviruses found in humans. Retroviruses are commonly identified in many animal species but in Humans H.I.V. or its variants such as HTLV I, HTLV II, HTLV III are found. The only way this virus can be transmitted is through blood, semen and vaginal secretions. H.I.V. is a retrovirus of the Lentivirus group and is the etiologic agent of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Briefly AIDS was first recognized as a disease syndrome in 1981 and HIV was identified as its cause in 1984. Coincidentally viruses isolated by a French researcher Dr. Montgnier as (Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus LAV) and by Dr. Gallo (HILV-III) and Levy (AIDS Related Retrovirus ARV) in the United States, they were all found to be identical and to be associated with AIDS. The virus is now known universally as HIV, its antibodies were found in serum drawn in parts of Africa in the early 1970 leading most investigators to believe that the disease originated in Africa and spread to the Caribbean and then to the United States, furthermore two strains of HIV have been identified, HIV-1 which is predominant isolate in clinical AIDS and found in central Africa and other regions in the world and HIV-2 which is generally limited to west and central Africa and has not demonstrated the virulence of HIV-1. Violence in Sports EssayI would like to point out that a more detailed and complete investigation is needed and that the possibilities of the HIV virus originating in Koprowskis using SIV infected cultures are high . Koprowsky definitely shows an incredible desire to secure a place in the Medicine Hall of Fame, from the way he initially used mentally deficient kids as guinea pigs for the purpose of accelerating the fine tuning of his vaccine. His way of not responding to the World Health Organization when challenged and his neglect to release the frozen cultures, leave me perplexed and confused. Another important piece of information is that Dr. Sabin in 1959 reported in the British Medical Journal that in a test he performed on Koprowski vaccine used in the Belgian Congo trials, was revealed the presence of an unidentified cell-killing virus, which Koprowsky totally disqualifies since two other labs examined his vaccine and found nothing knowing that Sabins results were gotten through a special test he had devised since he was the expert and was working with monkeys since 1932. Could such a mistake or lack of consideration and non acceptance of other colleagues advises be our last sin of human Ego possibly responsible for the 15,000,000 people that will be terminally infected with AIDS in this world by the year 2000 ?An enormous lack of awareness and denial is now present, not just in our American society but moreover in countries of the Eastern block as well as in the Indian and African continents. We can very well disqualify this disease as being an Homosexual disease since throughout the world is mainly present in the Heterosexual community and the only reasons that is prevalent in the Homosexual community is due to the mode of transmission which homosexual behavior drastically increases. Our problems with this disease are manly of stigmatization and discrimination, some people say education is also a problem but I think that the infrastructure of our educational system is extremely valid and far better than other countries it is perhaps the flow of this information that could be enhanced in order to make more people aware of these facts and therefore decrease the amount of stigmatization and discrimination caused by the poor flow of it. These problems do not surpass the problems of poor health care, education and prevention which are experienced by the rest of the world. For example in Calcutta, Budapest or Nairobi condoms are not easily accessible of affordable as they are in Los Angeles. This Invisible Tyrant is so dominant and strong to make us change the basic values of Make Love not War, now twisted in an anxious cry of Make Love and Die. It is sad that this time in our generation is bringing about the true evils of our basic human nature which has been for so long hidden in the political dust caused by this fast, accomplishing and progressive machine called modern society. These evils will cause a great deal of pain and sorrow, lets not go around preaching that homosexuals are to blame nor anyone else. Reason and evaluate the true math of the facts and adapt to a way of life in order to minimize further casualties. Declare war on HIV, be smarter than it is, educate and prevent and let us not waste time on stigmatizing nor discriminating, we are already doing plenty of it in other fields. Moral awareness should also be increased in an effort to have better use of the education we possess. Doctors with endless knowledge and years in medical school, to this date they refuse to treat HIV positive and AIDS patients as reported in recent surveys 5% of the medical profession are treating 90% of AIDS patients. I could continue to write endlessly in regards to all the different facets of this unworthy diamond but for the readers sake since this is not a book I must bring it to a conclusion. In lue from the information learned from this class and the listed bibliography, the chances to find cures for retroviruses and especially for the HIV virus are less likely to come about than it is for the virus itself evolving to a less virulent non deadly form. Since the HIV virus exploits each hosts DNA, every virus will have a different genetic brake down and therefore making it difficult for researchers to have an history on the virus itself. It reminds me of a movie The Body Snatchers, once presented by The Twilight Zone, youll never know who the body snatcher really is until the body has been snatched and than is half body half snatcher. All microorganisms and organisms go through evolution and therefore mutation, the hope is that it will mutate to a less virulent state to eventually coexist silently with humans as SIV does with African green monkeys. In the meantime lets develop more effective drugs in an effort to further prolong the lives of the people already affected by this syndrome and although the chances for a cure is scarce never give up. This class has been extremely helpful in dealing not only with the AIDS epidemic but also gave me some type of preparation in the confronting social crisis it brings an will increasingly bring about. It is my duty to pass along everything I have learned, to my family, friends and just about anyone I will come in contact with, in an effort to educate and elevate their level of awareness to a new survival standard. Since a few weeks ago I was not aware of it and ignorant of it. BIBLIOGRAPHY:Tom Curtis. Rolling Stone Magazine, March 19th, 1992 pg 54. David T. Kingsbury, and Gerald E. Wagner. The National Medical Series for Independent Study. Microbiology. Publisher: John Wiley ; Son, Inc. 1990.