Microbiology Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Microbiology Work - Essay Example They also contribute to patient’s treatment as well as the control of infection in the community and hospitals. However, Microbiology is rapidly changing. In the late 1970s, HIV and AIDS were unknown, but by the year 2000, approximately 22 million HIV related deaths had occurred globally. Ebola and Legionnaires viruses were also unknown, but a year later, they were making headlines. Microbiologists decided to go to the laboratory to find the virus behind AIDS and other diseases. The laboratory categorized the samples and dealt with each sections of the virus depending on the site and nature of collection. In this regard, this paper aims at explaining microbiology work in HIV, identifying the problems or issues that face scientists today as well as identify science influence or contribution to today’s culture in terms of technology, advances, and infectious disease controls (Gustavo, 2001). HIV/AIDS is said to have spread rapidly. There are roughly 33.4 million people li ving with the virus, 2 million deaths from and 2.7 new infections of AIDS. Microbiologists discovered that HIV virus causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). The virus is said to infect cells which are critical to the immune system, and as a result, destroy the ability of the system to fight infections. Therefore, it was found out that people who have AIDS do not have the ability to fight infections by other bacteria and viruses, which cause diseases in healthy people. Because of this, AIDS patients die from such infections that the scientists regard as harmless. Some of them develop cancers in their systems (Basic information about HIV and AIDS, 1999). The Microbiologists first discovered the agent which causes AIDS in 1983. In about 24 years, there were abnormal infection clusters that were found in homosexual men and approximately a million of Americans have contracted HIV. This epidemic has now afflicted both female and males in all ethnic groups. Spencer and Ragout (2 004) claim that, scientists acknowledge that the epidemic is growing rapidly among women and minority population. There are over 20 million deaths and the epidemic is spreading in all geographic regions. However, there is hope in finding the cure for AIDS because, Microbiologists are doing all they can to discover it. They have managed to stabilize it because of the ARVs that they initially discovered for its control which has helped in avoiding deaths. To add to this, they claim that when a person becomes infected with the HIV virus, there is a substantial lag time, for example, a decade before the person fully develops the AIDS symptoms, although the anti-HIV drugs can help delay the symptoms. However, afterwards, infected individuals start experiencing symptoms of Flu and are said to go for many years without the symptoms being detected (Basic information about HIV and AIDS, 1999). During this phase, the virus is said to continue replicating within the body, in addition to transm itting to other individuals if there is a direct contact with body fluids such as blood and semen. This time there is a steady but slow depletion of the cells, known as CD4 positive T cells which are infected by HIV. A Microbiologist found out that a normal person usually has 1000 CD4 Tcells in a blood milliliter, which HIV infects, and once the cells fall to 200 cells the person infected enters another phase which is now called AIDS.