Question

Describe AIDS disease on the basis of the following points
(1) Name of pathogen
(2) Test of confirmation of disease
(3) Main symptoms of the disease
(4) Ways of prevention
(5) Diagram of replication of a retrovirus

Answer 1

AIDS breaks down the body’s immune system, occurs in all ages and ethnic groups.HIV is an RNA virus and has a unique ability to destroy T4 Helper cells. Once a person gets infected, the virus remains in his body long before the symptoms actually appear.

Complete Step by Step Answer:
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is an infectious disease because it is caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Viruses), easily spread from person to person. So, HIV is both infectious and contagious
HIV transmitted through:
- Unprotected sex with infected partners.
- Sharing needles with an infected person.
- Transmission from infected mother to fetus.
- Infection from Blood products.

Additional information:
Test of confirmation of disease
The primary test for diagnosing HIV and AIDS is the Elisa test. Elisa stands for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, used for detecting HIV infection. If the Elisa test is positive, the Western blot test is administered for confirmation of diagnosis.

Symptoms of disease
HIV can take as long as 10 years for the symptoms to show. Symptoms include:
- Sore throat
- Bad Yeast infection
- Chronic pelvic Inflammatory disease
- Bad infection
- Feeling of tiredness, dizziness
- Headache
- Lost of weight
- Shortness of breath
- Skin rashes
- Losing control of muscles
Ways of prevention
There is no vaccine to prevent HIV infection. Prevention include:
- educating yourself about HIV and avoiding any HIV- infected fluid i.e. blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk.
- Use of clean syringes needles.
- Get a regular screening test.
- Be cautious about blood product
- Avoid sex with multiple partners.
- Use of preventive measures like condoms during intercourse.

Note:
- French virologist Luc Antoine Montagnier and American physician- scientist Robert Charles Gallo (1973) are credited with discovering the cause of AIDS.
- Scientists believe that HIV originally came from a virus particular to a chimpanzee in West Africa during the 1930s and transmitted to humans through blood while hunting.
- HIV is called a retrovirus because it inserts a copy of this RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell and thus making additional viral particles. viral genes are then transcribed and translated, after that it exits the cell and infects another cell.