DECEMBER -1st WORLD AIDS DAY

                        The saddest incurable disease facing the world today is cancer. But the scariest is the HIV/AIDS virus. It is scary because it is a disease that humans can protect themselves from and for the most part choose not to. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus and it attacks the T cells in our bodies. HIV interferes with our body's ability to effectively fight viruses that  cause diseases. HIV virus leads to AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which is a chronic and life threatening condition.

          Nationally HIV/AIDS became known in the early 1980's but studies have shown that HIV/AIDS has been around since the 1950's. It is said that AIDS originated in Africa. For the most part it is a disease that originated from monkeys. There are many stories of how this virus came about. One story rumored is that a monkey in Africa, infected with the HIV virus, stepped on a rock and slit the bottom of his foot leaving infected blood on the rock. Then a man walking the same path stepped on the same rock and the original blood mixed in his wound. No one really knows how it all started; the best explanation the book gives is human consumption of animal meat. Nonetheless HIV/AIDS is a serious disease that is killing America little by little. HIV/AIDS is a preventable disease, which is that everyone, if given the right education, can protect himself or herself. HIV is transmitted through heterosexual and/or homosexual contact with an infected partner; through intravenous drug use; (although less likely today) through blood transfusion, and lastly from mother to baby by crossing placenta during pregnancy or breast-feeding