Test: AIDS & Cancer - Grade 12 MCQ

Cervical cancer is almost exclusively caused by a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, although not all women with an HPV infection will develop cervical cancer. Girls and young women who are treated with the HPV vaccine have a significantly reduced risk of developing cervical cancer later in life.

A malignant tumor is capable of invading surrounding normal tissue as well as spreading throughout the body via the circulatory or lymphatic system. Hence, the cells proliferate, grow rapidly and move to other parts of the body to form metastasis.

HIV is classified as a retrovirus because it contains reverse transcriptase. It is a D-type virus in the Lentivirus family. Infection of cultured T4 cells with HIV usually results in cell death. 

World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease.

The ELISA test, also called the EIA for enzyme immunoassay, is used to detect the HIV antibody. It checks for certain proteins that the body makes in response to AIDS.

The type of virus which has RNA as its genetic material and uses reverse transcriptase enzyme to convert its RNA to DNA, after infecting a cell is known as Retrovirus. HIV is classified as a Retrovirus because its genetic information is carried in RNA instead of DNA. 

Transmission of HIV-infection generally occurs by
(i) Sexual contact with infected person
(ii) Transfusion of contaminated blood and blood products.
(iii) Sharing infected needles as in the case of intravenous drug abusers
(iv) Infected mother to her child through placenta. Shaking hands with infected persons is not a mode of transmission of HIV. 

Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams to treat cancer. It works by damaging the cancer cells and making it hard for them to reproduce. Your body is then naturally able to get rid of the damaged cancer cells. Radiation therapy also affects normal cells.

• Azidothymidine is a nucleoside analogue used for the treatment of AIDS.
• It prevents the function of Reverse transcriptase and hence slows down the replication of the HIV virus.
• However, death is inevitable.

Malignant malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum is the most serious one and can even be fatal.