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H. Guibert said, ‘AIDS is an illness in stages, a very long flight of steps that leads assuredly to death, but whose every step represents a unique apprenticeship. It is a disease that gives death time to live and its victims time to die, time to discover time, and in the end to discover life.’ AIDS is one of the most dangerous illnesses, which carries away the greatest number of lives.  Each day AIDS takes away 11,000 people all over the world. Research has revealed three ways of transferring an HIV-infection: sexually, through blood and vertically (from a mother to a child).

The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations between partners, one of whom has HIV. According to the WHO statistics, parts of the world such as Africa and Central Asia have the highest percentage of HIV-infected people (each day 2000 new infections are found and 4800 people die every week) and it is not a big surprise, as prostitution is one of the important problems in the countries of Africa and Central Asia. According to the Washington ProFile Agency nearly 70% of prostitutes in Africa are HIV-infected. As shown in the article ‘Transmission of HIV through sexual acts”, transmission of a virus from one person to another depends on different factors such as, unprotected sex with multiple partners, the presence of sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis, herpes and gonorrhea or other diseases like malaria as these illnesses create openings in the linings of the genital tracks through which HIV moves. Moreover, the phase of infection drastically raises the risk, for example HIV is more contagious in first 12 weeks as well as in the last 8 weeks as advanced disease has set in. One of the most effective ways to prevent AIDS transmission is protection. The most effective way is use of condoms.

World Health Organization’s studies conducted on couples where one partner is infected show that, with consistent condom use, HIV infection rates for the uninfected partner are below 1% per year. The second transmission route is particularly relevant to intravenous drug users, recipients of blood transfusions and blood products. The highest risk of infection of a virus is directly in veins, injections for example. Actually the risk to get an infection is extremely low in highly developed countries. However, according to WHO ‘the overwhelming majority of the world's population does not have access to safe blood and between 5% and 10% of HIV infections worldwide are transmitted through the transfusion of infected blood and blood products’.

Moreover one can become HIV infected because of the usage of a common instrument such as syringes or needles.  For example, needle sharing causes one third of all HIV-infections. As said in the article “Transmitting HIV through contaminated blood” the HI virus is highly concentrated in blood, and a drop or two of blood always remain in the hollow needle after injecting blood. If the next person uses the same needle, infected blood is injected into this person’s bloodstream - an ideal method for passing on the virus.  There is also a small risk to get an infection while getting a tattoo or a piercing because needles are used to make them. If instruments contaminated with blood are not sterilized between clients then there is a risk of HIV transmission.

The way to prevent one from being infected is not to share needles and other material required to prepare and take drugs. It is important that people use new or properly sterilized needles for each injection.Mother to child transmission is one of the main causes of HIV infection in children. According to the World Health Organization the transmission from HIV infected mother to a child is 90%, which is about 600 000 children per year. However, if the mother gives birth by caesarean section, the percent of transmission is only 1. Breastfeeding increases the transmission by 15%. This risk may vary according to the pattern and duration of breast-feeding. That means the longer the mother feeds her child with breast the higher the risk of infection is. However, it is highly recommended to avoid breast feeding if it’s acceptable, sustainable and safe for a child in order to avoid the risk. According to the UNESCO statistics, 700,000 children under 15 contracted HIV by mother-to-child transmission, and 630,000 of these infections occurred in Africa. However, nowadays, thanks to the development of science, there are antiretroviral drugs that can help a woman to prevent her child from infection, for example such medicine as zidovudin, nevirapin , which lower the risk of infection during pregnancy.

Millions of people live with HIV-infection and struggle for their lives to be as long as possible, as interesting as only it can be. This epidemic is still growing, embracing new regions of the world. During the past years not only the knowledge about AIDS has changed, but also people’s attitude towards it. From blind fear in front of the previously unknown illness mankind came to the partial scientific victory over the virus. Nicholas Eberstadt, the writer of the article “Future of AIDS” says, “Only a generation ago, the virus lay undetected. Yet in the past two decades about 65 million people have contracted the illness, and perhaps 25 million of them have already died. The affliction is almost invariably lethal: scientists do not consider a cure to be even on the horizon. For now, it looks as if AIDS could end up as the coming century's top infectious killer.

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