I want to about HIV and what are characterstics of HIV patients. What is AIDS and how to recognize it? A virus that steadily weakens the body's defense (immune) system until it can no longer fight off infections such as pneumonia, diarrhea, tumors and other illnesses. All of which can be part of AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome). Unable to fight back, most people die within three years of the first signs of AIDS appearing. Most of all HIV infections have been transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse with someone who is already infected with HIV. ... Look up the site aids.org, you'll get all the information your looking for. HIV is a deadly virus that is only transmitted through the bodily fluids, AIDS is the disease the HIV turns into after a extended period of time. First you contract the HIV virus and after a while if the virus is not correctly indentified and treated in time, the the virus turns into AIDS which, so far, is incurable. The human immunodeficiency (im-myoo-no-duh-fish-in-see) virus (HIV) causes AIDS, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. There are different types of HIV. Most people have HIV-1, but there are many strains (types); a person can become infected with more than one strain. HIV attacks the body's immune system (natural defense system against disease) by destroying one type of blood cells (CD4 cells) that helps the body fight off and destroy germs.
CD4 cells belong to a group of blood cells called T-cells that also help the body fight disease. In the body, HIV gets into these cells, makes copies of itself, and kills the healthy cells. Then the body can't fight germs anymore. When HIV takes over enough CD4 cells or causes serious infections (that don't normally make a healthy person sick), a person then has AIDS. See Diagnosing AIDS below for more information on how AIDS is defined. The progression from HIV to AIDS is different for everyone-some people live for 10 years or more with HIV without developing AIDS, and others get AIDS faster.
HIV symptoms
Many people have no symptoms when they first get HIV-some have no symptoms for years. It varies from person to person. But some people get a flu-like illness within a month or two after first getting HIV. The flu-like symptoms- fever, headache, fatigue (being a lot more tired than usual, and all the time), swollen lymph nodes (glands in the neck and groin)-often go away within a week. Even if there are no symptoms, HIV can still be passed to another person.
Also keep in mind that HIV is never diagnosed by the symptoms. You may have the symptoms below but not have HIV. These symptoms may be caused by something else. To find out if you have HIV, you'll need to get a test. If you find out you have HIV, there is no cure but there are ways to help keep you healthy.
It's important to remember that HIV is active inside your body, even when you don't have symptoms. As the HIV infection spreads throughout your body, you'll start to feel sick. For many people, the first symptom they notice is large lymph nodes (swollen glands) that may be enlarged for more than 3 months. Other symptoms that follow may include:
* being very tired (fatigue)
* quick weight loss
* fevers
* night sweats
* headache
* nausea
* vomiting
* diarrhea
* sore muscles
* mouth ulcers
* sore throat
* rash
There are also other symptoms that are more common, serious, and harder to treat in women with HIV:
* vaginal yeast infections
* other vaginal infections such as bacterial vaginosis and STDs like gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis
* pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or infection of a woman's reproductive organs
* menstrual cycle changes, like not having periods or having heavy and constant bleeding
* human papillomavirus (HPV) infections that cause genital warts and can lead to cervical cancer
As the immune system continues to weaken, other diseases and infections can develop that affect your eyes, digestive system, kidneys, lungs, skin, and brain. For more information, see the section on Opportunistic Infections. Check out this site.. it's a complete reference for HIV/Aids... I hope this will help you.
http://www.thebody.com/ HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus (commonly known as HIV, and formerly known as HTLV-III and lymphadenopathy-associated virus) is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. It also directly and indirectly destroys CD4+ T cells. As CD4+ T cells are required for the proper functioning of the immune system, when enough CD4+ T cells have been destroyed by HIV, the immune system functions poorly, leading to the syndrome known as AIDS. HIV also directly attacks organs, such as the kidneys, the heart and the brain leading to acute renal failure, cardiomyopathy, dementia and encephalopathy. Many of the problems faced by people infected with HIV result from failure of the immune system to protect from opportunistic infections and cancers.
HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid or breast milk. This transmission can come in the form of: penetrative (anal or vaginal) sex; oral sex; blood transfusion; contaminated needles; exchange between mother and infant during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding; or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.
AIDS is thought to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century and is now a pandemic. At the end of 2004, UNAIDS estimated that nearly 40 million people were currently living with HIV. The World Health Organization estimated that the AIDS epidemic had claimed more than 3 million people and that 5 million people had acquired HIV in the same year. Currently it is estimated that 28 million people have died and that HIV is set to infect 90 million people in Africa, resulting in a minimum estimate of 18 million orphans in Africa alone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV
How Is HIV Spread?
HIV infection isn't like a cold or the flu. A person cannot get HIV by hugging or holding the hand of, sharing a school bus or classroom with, or visiting the home of someone who has HIV. HIV is passed only through direct contact with another person's body fluids, such as blood. The majority of people in North America get infected with HIV by:
having sexual contact with a person who has HIV
sharing needles or syringes (used to inject illegal drugs) with a person who has HIV
Other ways of getting HIV can occur when:
an infected pregnant woman passes it to her unborn child. (This can be prevented by treating the mother and child around the time the baby is delivered.) Because of the risk to an untreated baby, every pregnant woman should be tested for HIV.
a person has a blood transfusion (say: trans-fyoo-zhun) from a fairly large volume of blood. But in North America today, all donated blood is tested for HIV, so the risk of getting HIV is less than one in a million.
What Are the Symptoms of HIV and AIDS?
Most people don't feel any different after they are infected with HIV. In fact, infected people often do not experience symptoms for years. Some people develop flu-like symptoms a few days to a few weeks after being infected, but these symptoms usually go away after several days.
An HIV-positive person will eventually begin to feel sick. The person might begin to have swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fevers that come and go, infections in the mouth, diarrhea, or he or she might feel tired for no reason all of the time. Eventually, the virus can infect all of the body's organs, including the brain, making it hard for the person to think and remember things.
When a person's T cell count gets very low, the immune system is so weak that many different diseases and infections by other germs can develop. These can be life threatening. For example, people with AIDS often develop pneumonia (say: nu-mo-nyah), which causes bad coughing and breathing problems. Other infections can affect the eyes, the organs of the digestive system, the kidneys, the lungs, and the brain. Some people develop rare kinds of cancers of the skin or immune system.
Most of the children who have HIV got it because their mothers were infected and passed the virus to them before they were born. Babies born with HIV infection may not show any symptoms at first, but the progression of AIDS is often faster in babies than in adults. Doctors need to watch them closely. Kids who have HIV or AIDS learn more slowly than healthy kids and tend to start walking and talking later.
How Are HIV and AIDS Diagnosed?
A person can be infected with HIV without even knowing it. So doctors recommend that anyone who thinks he or she may have been exposed to the virus get tested - even if the chance of having been infected seems small. Doctors test a person's blood to find out if he or she is infected with HIV.
People who are HIV positive need to have more blood tests every so often. The doctor will want to check on how many T cells the person has. The lower the T cell count, the weaker the immune system and the greater the risk that someone will get very sick.
How Are HIV and AIDS Treated?
Right now there is no cure for HIV or AIDS, but new medicines can help people live longer lives. Scientists are also researching vaccines that may one day help to prevent HIV infection, but it's a very tough assignment, and no one knows when these vaccines might become available. It's up to everyone to prevent AIDS by avoiding the behaviors that lead to HIV infection.
Can HIV and AIDS Be Prevented?
People can help stop the spread of HIV by avoiding sexual contact with infected people and by not sharing needles or syringes.
Health care workers (such as doctors, nurses, and dentists) help prevent the spread of HIV by wearing plastic gloves when working on a patient. Hospitals have strict procedures for handling samples of blood and other body fluids to prevent others from coming in contact with HIV.
Living With HIV and AIDS
New drugs make it possible for people who are HIV positive to live for years without getting AIDS. They can work or go to school, make friends, hang out, and do most of the things other people can do. They will have to take certain medicines every day and see their doctors pretty often, and they may get sick more than other people do because their immune systems are more fragile.
Even though they may look OK, people who are HIV positive may sometimes feel scared, angry, unhappy, or depressed. They may feel afraid that the people at work or school could find out and start treating them differently. It is important for all of us to remember that usual social contact, like eating lunch or playing games, with people who are HIV positive does not bring any risk of infection.
When HIV infection gets worse or turns into the disease called AIDS, life really changes. The person may need to spend a lot of time in bed or in the hospital because of serious illnesses. He or she may feel very tired or weak most of the time. The person also might lose weight
http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problem...
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the human immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),[1] the late stage of which leaves individuals prone to opportunistic infections and tumours. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV exist to slow the virus' progression, there is no known cure.
HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid or breast milk. This transmission can come in the form of: penetrative (anal or vaginal) sex; blood transfusion; contaminated needles; exchange between mother and infant during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding; or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.
Most researchers believe that HIV originated in sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century;[2] it is now a pandemic, with more than 40 million people now living with the disease worldwide.[3] As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. In 2005 alone, AIDS claimed between an estimated 2.8 and 3.6 million, of which more than 570,000 were children.[3] Many of these deaths are occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, retarding economic growth by destroying human capital. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries.[4] HIV/AIDS stigma is more severe than that associated with other life-threatening conditions and extends beyond the disease itself to providers and even volunteers involved with the care of people living with HIV.
How to recognize it?
Approximately half of those infected with HIV do not know their HIV status until their AIDS diagnosis with a HIV test. The screening of donor blood and blood products used in medicine and medical research is by this test. Typical HIV tests, including the HIV enzyme immunoassay and the Western blot assay, detect HIV antibodies in serum, plasma, oral fluid, dried blood spot or urine of patients. Commercially available tests to detect other HIV antigens, HIV-RNA, and HIV-DNA in order to detect HIV infection prior to the development of detectable antibodies are available. However, for the diagnosis of HIV infection these assays are not specifically approved, but are nonetheless routinely used in developed countries
The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages. Opportunistic infections are common in people with AIDS.HIV affects nearly every organ system. People with AIDS also have an increased risk of developing various cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma, cervical cancer and cancers of the immune system known as lymphomas.
Additionally, people with AIDS often have systemic symptoms of infection like fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss.After the diagnosis of AIDS is made, the current average survival time with antiretroviral therapy is estimated to be now more than 5 years, but because new treatments continue to be developed and because HIV continues to evolve resistance to treatments, estimates of survival time are likely to continue to change. Without antiretroviral therapy, death normally occurs within a year. Most patients die from opportunistic infections or malignancies associated with the progressive failure of the immune system.
The rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals and has been shown to be affected by many factors such as host susceptibility and immune function health care and co-infections,as well as factors relating to the viral strain.The specific opportunistic infections that AIDS patients develop depend in part on the prevalence of these infections in the geographic area in which the patient lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS charecteristic of HIV patients is of a weird one i'm not going to google an answer, but acc. to put it in my own simple words, being HIV+ means having a viral infection that decreases the amount of cd4 T-cells in the immune system.
A positive diagnosis will take into account the amount of these cells left in the body. The person becomes more and more immunosuppressed, and vulnerable to infections/cancers. If the amount of cd4 further decreases to a certain amount, the person is diagnosed w/ AIDS.
The disease is not curable but antiretroviral therapy provides for a means of palliative care.
Usually mortality results from illness secondary to HIV/AIDS because of the depressed immune system. |
