AIDS

Chișinău 2020
 1. What is AIDS?
2. How HIV is spread?
3. Symptoms of AIDS
4. Diagnosis
5. Is there a cure for HIV?
Summary 6. Treatment
7. World AIDS Day
8. Global HIV and AIDS statistics
9. Bibliography
 • AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is
the most severe phase of HIV infection. People
with AIDS have such badly damaged immune
systems that they get an increasing number of
severe illnesses, called opportunistic illnesses.
• Without treatment, people with AIDS typically
What is survive about 3 years. Common symptoms of
AIDS? AIDS include chills, fever, sweats, swollen lymph
glands, weakness, and weight loss. People are
diagnosed with AIDS when their CD4 cell count
drops below 200 cells/mm or if they develop
certain opportunistic illnesses. People with AIDS
can have a high viral load and be very infectious.
 How HIV is spread?
• HIV is spread primarily
by unprotected
sex (including anal and oral sex),
contaminated blood
transfusions, hypodermic needles,
and from mother to
child during pregnancy, delivery, or
breastfeeding. Some bodily fluids,
such as saliva, sweat and tears, do
not transmit the virus. HIV is a
member of the group of viruses
known as retroviruses.
Symptoms of AIDS
Symptoms of AIDS can include:
• Rapid weight loss
• Recurring fever or profuse night sweats
• Extreme and unexplained tiredness
• Prolonged swelling of the lymph glands in the
armpits, groin, or neck
• Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week
• Sores of the mouth, anus, or genitals
• Pneumonia
• Red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or
under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or
eyelids
• Memory loss, depression, and other neurologic
disorders
 Diagnosis
HIV can be diagnosed through blood or saliva testing.
Available tests include:
•Antigen/antibody tests. These tests usually involve drawing
blood from a vein. Antigens are substances on the HIV virus
itself and are usually detectable — a positive test — in the
blood within a few weeks after exposure to HIV.
•Antibody tests. These tests look for antibodies to HIV in
blood or saliva. Most rapid HIV tests, including self-tests done
at home, are antibody tests. Antibody tests can take three to
12 weeks after you're exposed to become positive.
•Nucleic acid tests (NATs). These tests look for the actual
virus in your blood (viral load). They also involve blood drawn
from a vein. If you might have been exposed to HIV within
the past few weeks, your doctor may
recommend NAT. NAT will be the first test to become positive
after exposure to HIV.
 Is there a cure for
HIV?
• No effective cure currently exists for HIV. But with
proper medical care, HIV can be controlled.
Treatment for HIV is called antiretroviral therapy or
ART. If people with HIV take ART as prescribed, their
viral load (amount of HIV in their blood) can become
undetectable. If it stays undetectable, they can live
long, healthy lives and have effectively no risk of
transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through
sex. Before the introduction of ART in the mid-
1990s, people with HIV could progress to AIDS (the
last stage of HIV infection) in a few years. Today,
someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the
disease is far advanced can live nearly as long as
someone who does not have HIV.
 There are many medications that can control HIV and
prevent complications. These medications are called
antiretroviral therapy (ART). Everyone diagnosed
with HIV should be started on ART, regardless of their stage
of infection or complications.
ART is usually a combination of three or more medications
from several different drug classes. This approach has the

Treatm best chance of lowering the amount of HIV in the blood.

There are many ART options that combine
three HIV medications into one pill, taken once daily.

ent Each class of drugs blocks the virus in different ways.

Treatment involves combinations of drugs from different
classes to:
•Account for individual drug resistance (viral genotype)
•Avoid creating new drug-resistant strains of HIV
•Maximize suppression of virus in the blood
Two drugs from one class, plus a third drug from a second
class, are typically used.
 • World AIDS Day takes place on 1 December each year. It’s an
opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against
HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to
World commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related
illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever
AIDS Day global health day.
• World AIDS Day is an opportunity to show solidarity with the
millions of people living with HIV worldwide. Most people do
this by wearing an HIV awareness red ribbon on the day.
 Global
HIV and AIDS statisti
cs
• HIV continues to be a major global public health issue. In 2018 an estimated 37.9
million people were living with HIV (including 1.7 million children), with a global HIV
prevalence of 0.8% among adults. Around 21% of these same people do not know that
they have the virus.
• Since the start of the epidemic, an estimated 74.9 million people have become infected
with HIV and 32 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses. In 2018, 770,000
people died of AIDS-related illnesses. This number has reduced by more than 55%
 since the peak of 1.7 million in 2004 and 1.4 million in 2010.
• The vast majority of people living with HIV are located in low- and middle- income
countries, with an estimated 68% living in sub-Saharan Africa. Among this group 20.6
million are living in East and Southern Africa which saw 800,000 new HIV infections in
2018.
 Bibliography
• https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/about-hiv-and-aids/sympto
ms-of-hiv
• cdc.gov/hiv/basics/whatishiv.html
• https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-aids
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hiv-aids/diagnosis-tr
eatment/drc-20373531
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS#Acquired_immunodeficiency
_syndrome
• https://www.worldaidsday.org/about/
• https://www.avert.org/global-hiv-and-aids-statistics