A.I.D.S.
(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
Bishop Serapion
AIDS is a serious
disease, which was discovered in 1981 in the U.S. among homosexual men.
The word AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It
is an acquired infection as opposed to a genetic immune deficiency ffb or autoimmune. A virus called human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) causes it. Once the
virus is transmitted, it attacks the body’s immune system, which depends on the
white blood cells. Once the immune system is weakened, the body becomes
susceptible to various opportunistic infections, especially of the pulmonary
and digestive systems, as well as neuralgic lesions and some malignancies.
Means of Transmission
and Infection:
Transmission happens
from an infected to non-infected person by means of transmission of bodily
substances containing the virus. Mainly, this happens through blood, plasma,
semen, vaginal secretions, and to a lesser degree through saliva and
tears. It is characterized by being a weak virus, which can not resist external factors, and can
not penetrate intact human skin. Mosquitoes or other insects do
not carry it.
Transmission and
infection take place through one of the following ways:
1. Contact with blood or
bodily fluids from an infected person to a non-infected person as in cases of
blood transfusion, needle sticks, and using contaminated needles. Also,
if a non-infected person has cuts or abrasions in the skin and comes in contact
with infected blood or bodily fluids from an infected person, then infection
may result. However, if the non-infected person’s skin is intact, he can not contract the virus by casual contact with an
infected person.
2. During
sexual intercourse if one of the partners is infected. The virus can be
present in semen or vaginal secretions.
3. Perinatally, i.e. from mother to fetus via the
placenta. It is also present in breast milk.
Because the virus is too
weak to resist external factors, it can not be
transmitted by casual contact of an infected person’s belongings and is not
air-borne, i.e. not by being present in the same room and breathing the same
air.
High Risk Groups:
High-risk groups have
been identified through clinical studies. They include homosexual and
bisexual men, IV drug users who share needles, heterosexual individuals with
multiple partners, prostitutes, recipients of transfused blood or blood
components, and babies born to infected mothers, as well as hemophiliacs.
90% of patients are between the age of 20-49 and 94% are among those of the
high-risk group.
Symptoms of the Disease:
Symptoms may vary from
one person to another depending on the reaction of the immune system.
However, we can divide those infected into two groups:
1. Those who are
carriers of the virus, yet have no clinical
symptoms. Incubation period maybe up to two years with some individuals,
but almost all HIV infected persons will eventually develop AIDS.
Individuals, who are carriers of the virus and do not display any signs or
symptoms of the disease, can still infect others.
2. Those who are infected and manifest symptoms of the disease.
These symptoms may range from fever, malaise, and enlargement of the lymph
nodes to the more severe where there are opportunistic infections affecting the
lungs, intestines, brain, etc. There are generalized lymph node
enlargement, weight loss, intermittent fever, fatigue, chronic diarrhea,
anemia, oral thrush (a hairy tongue), severe decrease in the white blood cell
count, seizures, memory loss, etc.
This is a very serious
disease and will eventually lead to death. In the meantime, the patient
suffers physical pain caused by the infections and tumors, which develop.
Diagnosis:
The most specific
diagnosis of HIV infection is by the isolation of HIV or the antigen of the
virus in the blood. The test for isolation of the virus is an expensive,
cumbersome, and not widely available procedure. The test, which is more
widely available and inexpensive, is the one detecting antibodies to HIV
revealed by a blood test. It is called an ELISA testing, and it is highly
sensitive and specific even with individuals who show no symptoms of the
disease.
There are no complete
recoveries from AIDS. It is a very serious disease, which will lead to
death in the end. Although patients may survive for years, their quality
of life is markedly compromised. They have to be on a wide variety of
medications, which have their own side effects. Many spend their
remaining lifetime hospitalized.
The Moral Aspects of the
Disease:
AIDS is not just a medical
problem; it is a social problem, which has deep moral implications. The
major means of spreading the disease and infection is a deviant
lifestyle. The great majority are homosexual and bisexual men,
promiscuous heterosexuals, and IV drug users. It is true that some of
those infected are innocent victims, e.g. babies born to infected mothers,
recipients of blood transfusions in which the blood is tainted, and health care
professionals who have accidental needle sticks. However, the scrutiny in
screening the blood and plasma donors has tremendously diminished and almost
eliminated contracting the disease through blood transfusions. Also, health
care workers routinely use universal precautions and barriers to prevent
against accidental needle sticks.
The real challenge in
facing the problem of AIDS is dealing with the widespread of deviant lifestyles
so prevalent in many societies. There is a false concept about sexual
freedom, including extra-marital sexual relationships resulting in the dissolution
of the family unit and affecting the husband, wife, and children. There
is widespread use of drugs including illicit drugs and intravenous shooting of
drugs, and the distorted understand of sex and sexual pleasure. All of
this makes AIDS a social problem and not merely a problem of the Health
Department. This gives the Church a special and crucial role in
confronting this modern age plague, which threatens humanity.
As a Church, we need to
address the problems, implications, and complications of the disease: how it is
spread, its seriousness and fatality, as well as how to prevent it.
Forefront in its prevention is spreading the religious morals and principles,
which call for a life of purity, chastity, holiness, and rejection of all
deviant lifestyles. For the unmarried, chastity through abstinence must
be emphasized and encouraged. It is the Christian morals and principles
of chastity, purity, and holiness, which constitute the most important factors
in fighting the spread AIDS and most importantly in preventing it.
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