AIDS is the short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. As the name itself tells us, this is a serious affection of the immune system. It is characterized by many syndromes, as opportunist infections, neurological dysfunctions and a large variety of other syndromes.



HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This virus is the one causing AIDS. It launches the disease; once this happened, the disease evolves continuously, until the death of the infected human.

For now, this disease is not curable. It can only be delayed in its evolution, with medicines and surgery. AIDS has been declared an official disease and aligned to the rest of the diseases in 1981. Unfortunately, the number of deceases caused by it is very large and growing. According to the World Health Organization, the number of deceases because of this disease was 2.9 million in 2006, and the world wide infected number of people is 39.5 million.

What really is bad is the fact that the number of infected people increases every year. According to the same organization, the number of people, which contact the disease every year, is up to 4.3 million. On a world level, it seems that the HIV infected people are about 1 percent, for the 15-45 age groups. It is also considered that in Africa, the percentage of people in the same age category, which have been infected with HIV so far, is 20 percent, or more in some certain regions. These statistics should be an alarm signal for all human beings around the world. The HIV, and what it can do to human bodies is awful and people should care more.

AIDS describes all the diseases associated with the HI (HIV) infection. This infection leads to the weakening and ultimately the destruction of the immune system of a human being. Almost all the infected and not treated persons will eventually develop the AIDS.

This has a disastrous effect especially on the young population, especially the young people who are sexually active. That is not a rule though, and it does not mean that the rest of the people categories are safe from it. It is usually transmitted by sexual contact but this is not the only way this virus spreads.

It can also be transmitted from the mother to the fetus; thus, a baby can be born carrying the virus. A baby born with this virus stands low survival chances and the possibility that child is dead before he or she gets to know the world and enjoy the gift of life and all the aspects a human should know before dying. The virus is transmitted by contact with the mother's blood, or after the birth process, by breast-feeding. The final evolution of all the patients, which contracted AIDS, despite the most modern, sophisticated and expensive therapies, which have been applied so far, along with the spreading of the disease, are alarming. Considering that more and more children are affected and infected, we should fear this twenty first century calamity.