HIV/AIDS

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HIV AIDS Cause

HIV is CAUSED by a virus called the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

person with hiv

This virus is spread from person to person through blood exchange of any type from an infected person to a non-infected person. This can be from sex, blood transfusion, and shared needles in drug use. It is not spread by mosquitoes or touching.

There is no cure!

It is not the HIV virus which actually does the killing. What it does is weaken your immune system - the cells which fight invading infections - a little bit everyday until you are no longer to put up resistance to even the lowliest infection. At this point the infection turns into AIDS which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Full blown AIDS happens about 8 to 10 years after getting the HIV virus. At this point every bacteria and fungi around you take advantage of your weakness and attack you. When your immune system is exhausted you die.

So HIV and other infections act like two bullies beating up on you. HIV holds you down while the others deliver the blows.

Infection with HIV is diagnosed by a blood test which measures antibodies in blood against the virus. AIDS is also diagnosed by a blood test, but by measuring the level of your immune cells called CD4+ Tcells; when they fall to less than 200 this is AIDS.

Recap: for the first 8 to 10 years of an HIV infection, you feel well. It is after this period that your immune system becomes so weakened that you begin to suffer constant miserable infections from other bacteria, fungi, and viruses. From this point on to death is called AIDS.

HIV AIDS Symptoms

HIV HIV / AIDS symptoms are SPUR's: Severe, Persistent, Unusual, Recurrent infections.

1 month after picking up HIV, flu-like symptoms develop temporarily such as:

  • Fever
  • Sore throat
  • Malaise
  • Muscle aches
  • Rash
  • Large lymph nodes

For the next 8 years there are no obvious symptoms. You feel well and not realize you have a death sentence coming up.

Then between 8 and 10 years the SPURs begin. Symptoms of AIDS including:

  • Fever
  • Weight loss
  • Loss of Appetite
  • Night Sweats
  • Unusual and severe infections such as thrush of the mouth, Kaposi's skin cancer - purple skin plaques, pneumonias, skin infections, diarrhea.
  • Recurrence of these infections despite treatment.

Eventually a victim's white blood cell count winds down so low that they are unable to fight even the simplest of infections and they die from the slightest colds.

HIV / AIDS Treatment

There is no cure for HIV AIDS, so the best treatment is not to let yourself get it in the first place!

hiv treatment

By far the most common way to get HIV AIDS is through unprotected sex with persons you do not know whether they have HIV or not. So there's really only two ways to prevent getting HIV - wearing condoms during all sex, or only having sex with someone you know does not have HIV. If in doubt, wear a condom. This device prevents blood transfer from you, and to you, and also protects against other sexually transmitted diseases (STD's).

Once you do have HIV AIDS there's no turning back. From that point on the best we can do is try to slow down the virus and prolong your life through antiviral drugs such as AZT (zidovudine) and by treating other infections that hitch a ride with antibiotics or antifungals.