Aids is a life-threatening disease.  It is caused by a small organism called a virus.  The virus commonly invades the blood stream of its victim through one of three ways.  Sexual activity with an infected person is the most common way.  Another way is during illegal street drug activity.  In this case sharing a needle that has been contaminated by someone with aids may occur and the disease spreads to uninfected people.
Unfortunately not all the victims of aids are adults who are sexually active.  Nor are they people who have shared contaminated needles while using drugs.  A growing number of the victims of the aids epidemic are children.

Aids can be transmitted to the child from an infected mother.  Of course this is not done deliberately.  It is known that aids is transmitted either through the placenta (the afterbirth) or during childbirth itself.  In addition, some children have been infected with the virus by receiving contaminated blood products while they were young.  Since 1985, all donated blood has been tested for contact with aids.

It is now common to give the mother and the newborn baby “azt” (zidovudine) to prevent transmission of the virus from the mother to the baby.  This is successful about 70% of the time.  A new drug, called nevirapine, is also used for this purpose, with good success.
Once the person becomes infected with aids, several signs and symptoms may occur.  These include night sweats, diarrhea, swollen glands and severe infections--especially of the lungs.  The aids virus attacks the part of the body which is responsible for protecting it from chemicals and germs.

Once this part of the body's defense system is crippled, the body becomes defenseless against cancers and infections that can kill.
Children with aids do not handle infections well at all.  For this reason even small or minor infections should be treated seriously.  A physician should be contacted as soon as any question of infections arises.

While children with aids certainly run risk of poor health and many infections, they're not a threat to others in the family or the neighborhood.  Complete studies have shown that there is no reason for excluding these children from the classroom or other social gatherings.  The only exceptions to this are if the children have a behavior problem such as biting, or if they have open sores which may lead to transmission of the virus.

Because these children are at risk themselves and are not responsible for their disease, they should not be made to feel less valuable than anyone else.  Every effort should be made to keep the child's life as normal as possible.  People whose loved ones have aids care for them on a daily basis without becoming infected.  They realize that the virus is not transmitted by close family contact.
Knowing this can help you make life easier for children with aids.  Remember, they must live with the effects of the disease in their own body, while at the same time needing the emotional and physical support from the important people around them.