Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). AIDS was first described as a clinical entity in 1981 and the causative virus (HIV ) was first isolated in 1983 AIDS is present in all parts of the world. There are two types of HIV, HIV-1 is found all over the world while HIV-2 is seen more in West Africa, but has also been seen in patients in North America, Europe and Central Africa.
THE THREE MODE OF TRANSMISSION OF HIV
Apart from sweat, the virus has been found in all body fluids i.e. blood, vaginal fluid, breast milk, semen, saliva, tears, urine, alveolar fluid and cerebrospinal fluid. Therefore an exchange of any of these body fluid containing the virus will lead to spread of the virus but any injury in the form of bruise, cut, sores or ulcer will allow the virus to penetrate the skin and get to the body.
- Transmission through infected blood
- Sexual Transmission
- Transmission from mother to her baby (perinatal transmission)
HOW HIV IS NOT TRANSMITTED
The virus can live only inside a living human body, but survives for only a few hours outside the human body. HIV cannot pass through unbroken skin and is not spread through casusal contact such as touching someone with HIV or something they have used such as sharing, eating or drinking utensils, or using the same toilet seats or baths showers and swimming pools.
HIV is not transmitted by mosquitoes or other blood sucking insects. The virus is not present in sweat and as such there is no risk of contracting HIV during sporting activities against an athlete or as a footballer who is HIV positive as long as he/she (carrier) is not injured.
The average time between HIV infection and the development of AIDS is ten years but this period can be shortened if there is lower level of health and death can occur within two years in AIDS patients.
HIV infected women progressively become less fertile and the longer the HIV infection progresses, the less likely they are to get pregnant. HIV positive women in Africa bear 20% fewer children than they otherwise would.
SIGNS OF AIDS;
The major signs of AIDS are:
- Weight loss of 10% of the body weight or more.
- Chronic diarrhea for more than one month
- Prolonged fever for more than one month (intermittent or constant)
Minor signs of AIDS are:
- Presistent cough for more than one month.
- Generalized pruritic (itching) dermatitis (rash)
- Recurrent herpes zoster
- Oro-pharyngeal candidiasis (mouth yeast)
- Chronic progressive and disseminated herpes simplex infection
- Generalized lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymphonodes)
SCREENING TEST FOR HIV ANTIBODIES
ELISA TEST: It is a cheap test and can be completed within four hours. It gives a lot of false positive results. It is not specific i.e. not very good for confirming HIV/AIDS. This test can give false positive result in patients with malaria, chaga's disease, grand multipara women and patients who had recieved multiple blood transfusions.
WESTERN BLOT TEST OR IMMUNOBLOT: This is the test used to confirm HIV/AIDS but is more expensive and takes about two days to complete.
CONTROL OF HIV/AIDS
This can be through abstinence from sex, uninfected person is safest, use of condom. There are not drugs yet that can cure AIDS. However, there are drugs that can stop the multiplication of the virus in the body and health education on HIV/AIDS.
TREATMENT OF HIV/AIDS
HIV treatment involves taking medicines that slow the progression of the virus in your body. HIV is a type of virus called a retrovirus, and the drugs used to treat it are called antiretrovirals (ARV). These drugs are always given in combination with other ARVs; this combination therapy is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). Many ART drugs have been used since the mid-1990s and are the reason why the annual number of deaths related to AIDS has dropped over the past two decades.
Although a cure for HIV does not yet exist, ART can keep you healthy for many years, and greatly reduces your chance of transmitting HIV to your partner(s) if taken consistently and correctly. ART reduces the amount of virus (or viral load) in your blood and body fluids. ART is recommended for all people living with HIV, regardless of how long they’ve had the virus or how healthy they are. HIV attacks and destroys the infection-fighting CD4 cells of the immune system. Loss of CD4 cells makes it hard for the body to fight off infections.
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