AIDS
AIDS is a pathological syndrome with a wide range of signs and symptoms that result from a person being infected with HIV. When infected with the virus, the virus attacks the immune cells, particularly T lymphocytes T-helper cell / CD4), weakens the immune system in general and makes it vulnerable to life-threatening infections and the development of cancers in the body. When this happens, this condition is called AIDS. This means that not everyone infected with the virus means that it has AIDS. The syndrome can be eliminated Symptoms but when the virus enters the body keeps its lifetime, ie, there is no cure for this disease to date.
Worldwide, the number of infected people is estimated at 36.9 million in 2014, of which 2.6 million are children under the age of 15, most of whom live in poor areas, especially in the southern sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.
Symptoms of AIDS at the time of onset
You can not rely on symptoms to see if a person is infected with the virus or not. The only way is to perform laboratory tests, and knowing the patient’s condition helps him to stay healthy and avoid the transmission of the disease to others.
The symptoms of the virus vary depending on the person and stage. The symptoms of the disease are divided into three parts: the early stage of HIV infection, the clinical latency phase, and the AIDS phase. It is not necessary for the patient to pass through all these stages.
Early stage
Some patients may show symptoms similar to the flu within 2-4 weeks after infection with the virus, while others may not show signs of disease during this stage, and these symptoms are:
These symptoms may last from a few days to several weeks. During this period, the antibodies may not appear in the tests, but the person in this case is contagious and can transmit the infection to others. And those who show these symptoms do not mean that he has the disease, because these symptoms are general may appear in any other disease, and may not show the virus has any symptoms for ten years or more.
Clinical latency stage
After the early stage of HIV infection, the disease is transmitted to a stage called clinical latency (also called “chronic HIV infection”). During this phase, the virus remains active but replicates itself in cells at very low levels. The patient may not have any HIV-related symptoms or show only mild symptoms.
It is important to note that the victim is still able to transmit the virus to other people during this stage even if they have any symptoms, and the rate of transmission is low if the patient takes the treatments regularly.
AIDS phase
For HIV-positive patients who have not received appropriate treatment, the virus eventually weakens the body’s immune system to the stage of HIV / AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection. The patient shows the following symptoms:
- Rapid weight loss.
- Frequent fever or severe night sweats.
- Unjustified fatigue.
- Prolonged swollen lymph nodes in the armpit, thigh, and neck.
- Diarrhea lasts for more than a week.
- Sores in the mouth, anus, genitalia.
- Pneumonia.
- Red spots, brown, pink, or purple under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids.
- Loss of memory, depression, and other neurological disorders.
- Many severe symptoms of this disease result from opportunistic infections that exploit the weakness of the immune system.
Methods of infection with the virus
The virus is transmitted by some body fluids and is arranged according to the concentration of the virus which are: blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk, the disease is transmitted through these things:
- Natural or abnormal sexual intercourse with an infected person without using protective methods.
- Transfusion of contaminated blood and its products, following medical errors.
- Transplantation of the donor is infected, but these are rare.
- Participation in contaminated needles in drug addicts.
- Transmission of the virus from the infected mother to her fetus during pregnancy, childbirth or milk during breastfeeding.
- Other cases such as contaminated needles, and non-sterilization of tools in dental clinics.
- Fluid-free liquids are:
- Saliva.
- Tears.
- Ethnicity.
- Feces.
- Urine.
the cure
There is currently no treatment for HIV. The virus is treated using a combination of drugs to combat infection. This is called ART. It is not a cure, but it works to control the virus so that the patient can live a longer and healthier life. And reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to other people.
These drugs prevent the virus from reproducing itself, which reduces the amount of virus in the body, gives the immune system an opportunity to restore and fight inflammation and cancer, and by reducing the amount of virus in the body, also reduces the risk of transmission of the virus to others, ART) for all patients with HIV regardless of whether they have symptoms or not; because if left untreated, the virus will destroy the immune system, and eventually the disease will progress to AIDS.