Because there is no vaccine for HIV, the only way people can prevent infection with the virus is to avoid behaviors putting them at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex.

Many people infected with HIV (AIDS) have no symptoms. Therefore, there is no way of knowing with certainty whether a sexual partner is infected unless he or she has repeatedly tested negative for the virus and has not engaged in any risky behavior.

Abstaining from having sex or using male latex condoms or female polyurethane condoms may offer partial protection, during oral, anal, or vaginal sex. Only water based lubricants can be used when using a condom.

Even though there is some evidence to show spermicides can destroy HIV, it is not proven as a prevention system.

Recently, NIAID-supported two studies that found adult male medical circumcision reduces a man’s risk of acquiring HIV infection by approximately 50 percent. The studies only pertain to heterosexual forms of transmission. As with other prevention strategies, male circumcision is not completely effective at preventing the transmission of HIV. Circumcision will be more effective if it is a part of a more complete prevention strategy that includes condoms.

Vaccines help the body’s immune system to recognize a harmful organism and kill it when the body sees the real thing. Despite extraordinary advances in understanding both HIV and the human immune system, a fully successful HIV vaccine continues to elude researchers. This is why we primarily reley on HIV medications like Kaletra (Lopinavir, Ritonavir), and Combivir.

HIV attacks CD4+ T cells, the most important part of the immune system that coordinates and directs the activities of other types of immune cells that combat intruding microbes. In order for a vaccine to be effective it would need to be able to activate these cells- a hard feat if they are being infected and destroyed by the HIV virus.Scientists have not identified the correlates of immunity, or protection, for HIV and are still trying to design vaccines to induce the appropriate immune responses necessary for protection.

Unlike other viral diseases for which investigators have made successful vaccines, there are no documented cases of complete recovery from HIV infection. So, HIV vaccine research has no actual human model of recovery from an infection and subsequent protection from re-infection to help it. HIV will continually mutate in an infected person while it recombinds to evolve into brand new strains. This extensive diversity of HIV poses a challenge to vaccine design as an HIV vaccine would need to protect against many different strains of the virus circulating throughout the world. Vaccines in the past have only had to fight off a small number of strains, even one.

For more than a few years alcohol dependency research has demonstrated the fact that there is strong association between alcohol addiction and life-threatening health conditions.

For example, in 2005, scientific examination showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. It may be noted that this substantial alcohol-related expense was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to accentuate these facts, it is also important to highlight the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health conditions.

More correctly, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.

Certainly, substance abuse exploration has demonstrated the fact that alcohol dependency can boost the risk for various kinds of cancer, especially cancer of the esophagus, kidneys, throat, rectum, liver, voice box (larynx), and the colon. Heavy and recurring drinking can also result in immune system problems and damage to the fetus during pregnancy.

Excessive Drinking Weakens the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs

What is more, if alcohol dependency continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in an unsafe manner. As an illustration, repeated, excessive drinking is especially damaging to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been consumed. Unwarranted amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and eradicates the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This condition leads to a progressive inflammatory injury to the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a precarious and potentially incurable medical problem.

Abusive, long-term drinking not only can lead to severe liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this serious may be unalterable and may, in turn, lead to severe disease or an early death.

The Significance of Alcohol Treatment

It is imperative, consequently, to know how to recognize the various alcoholism symptoms and signs so that the alcohol addicted person can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol treatment he or she needs.

Alcohol Addiction and Sophisticated Brain Exploration

Fortunately, medical investigation is continuously uncovering new and important information. Recent alcoholism exploration provides an excellent example. Stated differently, for roughly the last ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning instruments have confirmed that continuous and recurring irresponsible drinking alters the makeup of the brain to a significant extent, thereby resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perchance as long as the person exists.

More specifically, medical exploration has revealed that individuals who have been drinking in an excessive manner for a sizeable length of time increase their risk for developing long lasting and severe adaptations in the brain.

This type of damage may be directly related to the alcohol’s effects on the brain, to severe liver disease, or might be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health.

Hazardous Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders

As a final example of different medical problems that are significantly correlated to alcoholism, consider that in accordance with scientific examination, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, a medical condition that diminishes the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This form of organ failure is linked to malnutrition and to a number of acute mental and neurological problems including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is a lasting incapacitating medical condition that is epitomized by continual memory and learning complications.

Summary

It is obvious that repetitive, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly linked to a number of critical medical problems that can and do lead to dangerous ailments and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of individuals will be able to abstain from irresponsible drinking while other people who have a drinking problem will get the quality treatment they require.