ustralian AIDS Association *
A project by Ivanhoe Grammar School students Patrick Moio, Imogen Money, Thomas Gazis, Elizabeth Simcevski and Angeline Koutsoukos
*this is not a real organisation
What is HIV/AIDS?
Video Explanation
Over 34 Million people are infected with HIV around the world. Just last year, 2.5 million new cases emerged and over 1 and a half million people died from AIDS. That's like 14 airplanes crashing every day, for one year. Or it's like the entire population of Adelaide being wiped out for one year, every year. In total, over 30 million people with AIDS have died worldwide since the epidemic began. Although there has been a decrease of AIDS-related deaths by 40% since 2005, the pandemic continues, and our continual knowledge on its cause has come to a halt.
When HIV was emerging from seemingly nowhere in the early 80s, with no known methods of treatment, health care professionals did not know what they were dealing with, and the common public were scared by what it could mean for the world.
HIV was first identified as a virus that attacked the immune system in 1985, and with a compromised immune system, the body's ability to fight off diesease is reduced. Much of the fight against disease is carried out by a type of white blood cell called T cells or CD4 cells. HIV targets and destroys these very cells. It does so by entering and reprograming the CD4 cells, and making them release replications of the virus, which go on to infect other CD4 cells. Soon there are so few functional white blood cells left, the body cannot fight off infections and cancer. This stage is called AIDS.
What does HIV stand for?
HIV stans for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Human refers to humans of course, and Immuno means a resistance to disease. Deficiency is a lacking or failure. Therefore HIV by definition is a virus resulting in human failure to resist disease.
What does AIDS stand for?
The A in AIDS stands for acquired, meaning received or obtained. Immuno is again resistance to disease and deficiency is a lacking or failure. A syndrome is a disease that involves a particular set of symptoms. So that makes the definition of AIDS an obtained failure to resist disease.