Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is the final stage of the infection caused by the virus called HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The virus causes severe damage to the immune system
Cause of AIDS
AIDS is caused by HIV infection. The virus attacks the immune system leaving the individual susceptible to life-threatening infections and cancers. Common bacteria, yeast, parasites, and viruses that usually do not cause serious disease in people with healthy immune systems can turn deadly for AIDS patients. It is a retro virus and contains the enzyme reverse transcriptase. Once the virus infects a cell, this enzyme allows the cell to make viral DNA fro Viral RNA. HIV viruses are deadly as it specifically attacks the helper T-lymphocytes of the immune system which activate other T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. Hence when HIV depletes the body of helper T lymphocytes the immune system cannot carry out its immune responses (i.e. cell-mediated or the humoral response) leaving the body defenceless against most invaders so the virus spreads.
Who is at risk?
Those at highest risk include injection drug users who share needles, babies born to mothers with HIV, those engaging in unprotected vaginal or anal sex with HIV positive individuals, and those who received blood transfusions or clotting products between 1977 and 1985 (before screening for HIV became standard practice).
Symptoms of HIV/AIDS
HIV infection may cause no symptoms for a decade or longer. At this stage carriers may transmit the infection to others unknowingly. If the infection is not detected and treated, the immune system gradually weakens and AIDS develops. Acute HIV infection takes a few weeks to months to become a non-symptomatic HIV infection. Then it becomes early symptomatic HIV infection and later it progresses to AIDS.
Opportunistic infections
These are infections that normally do not affect an individual with a healthy immune system but AIDS patients are susceptible to these infections. These include viral infections like:
herpes simplex virus herpes zoster infection cancers like Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma fungal infections like candidiasis bacterial infections like tuberculosis
Other infections include Bacillary angiomatosis, Candida esophagitis, Pneumocystic jiroveci pneumonia, AIDS dementia, Cryptosporidium diarrhea, cryptococcal meningigits and Toxoplasma encephalitis.
Treatment of AIDS
There is no cure for AIDS once it develops. There are agents available that can help keep symptoms at bay and improve the quality and length of life for those who have already developed symptoms. Drugs against HIV include antiretroviral therapy. These prevent the replication of the HIV virus in the body. A combination of several antiretroviral drugs, called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), has been very effective in reducing the number of HIV particles in the bloodstream. Preventing the virus from replicating can improve T-cell counts or CD4 cell counts and help the immune system recover from the HIV infection. Medicines are also prescribed to prevent opportunistic infections if the CD4 counts are low.
Outcome of HIV
AIDS is almost always fatal without treatment. HAART however has dramatically increased the amount of time people with HIV remain alive.
Prevention of HIV
Safe sex measures with use of condoms, shunning use of illicit drugs or shared needles or syringes, avoidance of contact with blood and fluids by wearing protective clothing, masks, and goggles etc. helps prevent transmission. HIV-positive women who wish to become pregnant may need therapy while they are pregnant to prevent transmission to their babies. The Public Health Service recommends that HIV-infected women in the United States avoid breastfeeding to prevent transmitting HIV to their infants through breast milk.