Essay by kelkinseyUniversity, Bachelor'sA, November 2007

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Living with AIDS can be one of the scariest things a person can deal with in life. The disease is a silent disease until the person infected with it becomes ill with an infection most people can get over; however, an AIDS patient can not fight it off like most other healthy people can. Now that people are becoming more and more educated about the disease, there are not as many cases of AIDS now as there were ten or fifteen years ago. There are many factors that someone really needs to learn about AIDS and how it could affect them. There are three main aspects of AIDS, the cause of AIDS, the disease and the cause of death.

The Cause of AIDSThere are many causes of AIDS. Blood transfusions were one problem in the past which was caused by blood not being tested properly. Homosexual and heterosexual partners contract AIDS when they do not protect themselves when having sexual relations and one or the other person has already contracted the disease.

Sharing needles or syringes is another main cause of the transfer of the AIDS virus. Doctor Patrick Dixon says ÃÂTears, saliva and urine do contain the virus, but almost always in tiny amounts. The amount is greatly increased by eye, mouth or urine infection. White cells in saliva carry the virus in up to nine out of ten people with AIDS. The virus needs to enter the body to cause an infectionÃÂ (Dixon, 2002, n.p.). The many myths about AIDS and how it can be contracted are, using the same toilet as an infected person, kissing and/or touching an infected person. The virus attacks the cells when it enters the body and begins to take over. DoctorPatrick Dixon states, ÃÂWhen HIV touches the cell and the bubble...