What is AIDS?
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS is the chronic, serious condition which is triggered by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Simply through damaging the immune system, the virus interferes with the ability of your body to fight organisms, which causes disease. Furthermore, HIV is an infection that is sexually transmitted; however it may also easily passed on from a mother to her baby during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or by the contact with an infected blood. Moreover, it tend to take years prior the infection makes the immune system weaker to a point that an individual actually have AIDS.
In addition to this, there tend to be no cure for the disease. However, the medications can considerably slow down the progression of the disease.
What are the symptoms of AIDS and HIV?
Generally, symptoms of AIDS and HIV differ, depending on your infection phase.
- Primary infection: mostly, individuals infected by the virus develop an illness like flu, within 1-2 months after it enters their body. Particularly, this illness is called acute or primary HIV infection, it can last for several weeks. Few possible symptoms are:
- Headache.
- Fever.
- Muscle aches.
- Chills.
- Rash.
- Genital or mouth ulcers.
- Sore throat.
- Swollen lymph glands, mostly on your neck.
- Night sweats.
- Joint pain.
- Diarrhea.
Even though, the sings of this stage can be mild, yet the virus amount in your bloodstream is intensely high. Thus, quite efficiently, the infection spreads during this stage rather through the infection’s next stage.
- Clinical latent infection:
For few individuals, the symptom of constant lymph nodes swelling occurs through the clinical latent HIV stage. Else, there tend to be no particular symptoms. Virus remains in your body. The stage normally lasts for 8-10 years. However few individuals stay even longer in this particular stage, though others tend to steps forward to a more serious disease.
- Early symptomatic infection:
While the virus persists to destroy your immune cells and multiply, an individual can develop chronic symptoms or mild infections such as:
- Cough.
- Weight loss.
- Diarrhea.
- Swollen lymph nodes.
- Fatigue.
- Fever.
- Shortness of breath.
- Progression to AIDs: by not receiving the treatment, the HIV infection normally develops to AIDS (takes around 9-10 years). While AIDs develops, the body’s immune system already has been seriously damaged, risking you to infection. Such infections, in general, do not trouble an individual having a good immune system. Symptoms of such infections are:
- Cough.
- Night sweats.
- Headaches.
- Breathing shortness.
- Shortness of breath.
- Weight loss.
- Chronic diarrhea.
- Shaking fever or chills for few weeks.
- Unexplained, persistent fatigue.
- Distorted and blurred vision.
- Unusual lesions or persistent white color spots in the mouth or on the tongue.
- Skin bumps or rashes.
How is HIV transmitted?
One can become HIV infected in many ways:
- Sexual intercourse with an HIV infected individual.
- From transfusions of blood.
- By sharing syringes and needles contaminated with the infected blood.
- During the delivery/ pregnancy or through feeding the infected mother’s milk.
How is HIV diagnosed?
It is commonly diagnosed through testing the saliva or blood for the antibodies to this virus. Few tests can actually help decide your disease’s stage. They include:
- Viral load.
- CD4 count.
- Drug resistance.
How is HIV/AIDS treated?
Honestly, there is no cure for the disease; however different drugs are used in form of combination in order to control this virus. Every anti-HIV drug class blocks this virus in a distinct way.
By : Natural Health News
