What is the treatment of AIDS?

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Rick

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So far as of now AIDS can only be treated but cannot be cured. There is at present no vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS, which makes prevention so important. Combinations of antiviral drugs and drugs that improve the immune system have let many people with HIV to ward off infections, stay fit and healthy, and extend their lives, but these medicines are not a sure shot cure. At present there is no vaccine to prevent HIV and AIDS, although researches have been on for developing one.

The best way so far suggested is prevention and avoid risking HIV infection. The only recognized methods of prevention are grounded on averting contact to the virus or, on failing which, an antiretroviral treatment (ART) straight after a extremely significant exposure, called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). PEP has a very difficult four week timetable of dosage. It also has awfully unpleasant side effects which include diarrhea, uneasiness, nausea and fatigue. These drugs can slow down the rapid growth of HIV virus, and slow down the harm to your immunity system. There is no way to “clear” the HIV virus out of the body.

To prevent HIV infection, Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is used for ARVs after exposure to HIV as soon as possible. PEP can reduce the rate of infection by 79% in health care workers who are exposed to HIV.

There are other drugs available which can prevent or treat opportunistic infections (OIs). In several cases, these drugs work perfectly well. The newer, stronger ARVs have also aided decrease the rates of most OIs. A few OIs, though, are still very hard to treat.

In case of serious exposures, the U.S. Public Health Service has recommended using a mixture of three approved ARVs for four weeks. And in case of less serious exposure it recommends using the two drugs: AZT and 3TC for four weeks of treatment. But sometimes these medicines come with some side effects and most of the health concerning agencies also issues warnings about them. As an instance the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned in January 2001 warned against nevirapine use for PEP as it increases the risk of liver damage. In September 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated its PEP recommendations.

What are the causes & Symptoms of AIDS?

What is the treatment of AIDS?

Since there is no cure and prevention is better than that, it is better to prevent yourself from HIV infection. HIV transmission and infection can be prevented by:

* abstaining from sex (abstinence from oral, vaginal, or anal sex)
* Regular use of latex condoms for any kind of sexual intercourse
* avoiding contact with the bodily fluids through which HIV is and can be transmitted.
* Never sharing needles with other and destroying it after single use to make sure nobody else uses it again.

These are some methods to prevent HIV/AIDS infection since no cure is available as of now.

What are the causes & Symptoms of AIDS?

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Rick

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Causes: A healthy body has CD4 helper lymphocyte cells (CD4 cells). CD4 helper lymphocyte cells assist the immunity system of the body to function properly and hold back certain kinds of disease and infections. This objective is performed by acting as messengers to other types of immunity system cells, informing them to become active and fight back against invasive microbes.

HIV virus attaches themselves to these CD4 lymphocyte cells, taints them, and uses them as a medium for multiplying themselves. In this process, the HIV virus destroys the capacity of the tainted cells to perform their job in the defense mechanism. The body then gradually loses the capability to fight off diseases and infections. The body becomes susceptible to diseases and various ailments especially tuberculosis and other kinds of otherwise rare contagions of the lung (such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia), the surface covering of the brain (meningitis), or the brain itself (encephalitis). Now this stage where the body becomes vulnerable to various infections is known by the term AIDS. It is where the human body loses the immunity to fight off the disease spreading germs. Now don’t get panic! It doesn’t happen as fast as you have completed reading this. It takes months to develop AIDS in a HIV positive person and sometimes it even takes years to develop and show the symptoms of AIDS.

Symptoms:

Severe symptoms of HIV infection and AIDS takes years to appear sometimes even for 10 years they may not appear. And sometimes for years leading up with that, a person may not have or show any symptoms of AIDS. The time taken to show the symptoms of AIDS differs from person to person. Some HIV positive people may feel and look fit for years even as they are infected with HIV infection, and they may even not know that they are infected. It is still likely to contaminate others with HIV, even if the infected person has absolutely no appearance of symptoms. Nobody can simply tell by looking at anyone whether he or she is a HIV infected person.

When a person’s immunity system is besieged by AIDS, the following symptoms may began to occur:

What are the causes & Symptoms of AIDS?

What is the treatment of AIDS?

* A person may feel extreme weakness or fatigue

* A person may rapidly lose weight

* A person may experience frequent fevers that last for several weeks with no elucidation

* A person may sweat heavily at night

* A person may have swollen lymph glands

* The person may have minor infections causing skin rashes and mouth, genital, and anal sores

* The person may have white spots in the mouth or throat.

* The person may suffer from chronic diarrhea

* The person may suffer from chronic cough

* The person may suffer from temporary and short term memory loss; he/she may have difficulty in remembering things.

Girls may also experience severe vaginal yeast infections as well as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) that don’t respond to usual treatment, which worked perfectly well at other times. People who have AIDS tend to keep getting sicker.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) And HIV

Posted on March 21, 2009 by Rick

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What Is AIDS?

AIDS is one of the most serious, deadliest diseases in human history. AIDS progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome:

* Acquired means you can get infected with it;
* Immune Deficiency means a weakness in the body’s resistance that fights diseases.
* Syndrome means a group of health problems that make up a disease.

AIDS is caused by a virus known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). If you are infected with HIV, your body’s immune system will try to fight the infection. It will make “antibodies,” special molecules to fight HIV. It is with these antibodies by which a patient can be diagnosed as HIV positive. A blood test for HIV looks for these antibodies. If a person has these antibodies in the blood, it means that he or she is infected with HIV infection. People who have the HIV antibodies or who are infected with HIV infection are called “HIV-Positive.”

HIV destroys a type of defense cell in the body known as CD4 helper lymphocyte (pronounced: lim-fuh-site). These defense cells or lymphocytes are part of the body’s immune system. Immune system is the defense mechanism of the human body that fights infectious diseases. But since HIV virus destroys these lymphocytes, people with the HIV begin to get severe infections that they wouldn’t normally had— that is, their body becomes immune deficient. The name for this condition where the body is immune deficient is called as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

AIDS can affect every parts of the body’s system. The immune deficiency caused by having too few CD4 helper lymphocytes also allows developing some cancers which are caused by viral illness to occur — some people with HIV/AIDS get forms of lymphoma and a rare tumor of blood vessels in the skin called Kaposi’s sarcoma. As Since AIDS is lethal, it is necessary that doctors detect HIV infection as early as possible so a person can take medication to setback the inception of AIDS.

An HIV-positive person receives an AIDS diagnosis after developing one of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)-defined AIDS indicator illnesses. An HIV-positive person can also obtain an AIDS diagnosis on the basis of certain blood tests (CD4 helper lymphocytes counts) and may not have experienced any serious maladies. If a person is diagnosed as HIV positive in a HIV test it does not mean that the person has AIDS. A diagnosis of AIDS is made by a physician as defined by the norms of CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) AIDS Case Definition. AIDS is the condition where the body becomes immune deficient against the diseases and illnesses.

What are the causes & Symptoms of AIDS?

What is the treatment of AIDS?

Sooner or later, infection with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) can deteriorate the immune system to the point where the immune system becomes weak in fighting off certain infections. Most of the infections that cause tribulations or that can be life-threatening for people with AIDS are generally proscribed by a healthy immune system. HIV weakens the immune system of a person to the point where medical intervention becomes necessary to prevent or treat even frivolous illness.

AIDS has already killed millions of people all over the world, millions still continue to become infected with HIV, and there’s no cure for AIDS – so AIDS and HIV will be around for a while yet.

One of the biggest problems with AIDS is that nobody is beyond its reach, so everyone should know the basic facts about HIV and AIDS.