AIDS/HIV Information

The HIV virus, type one or two is widely known to be the reason for AIDS. HIV breaks down and assaults your T cells so your body is unable to defend itself against different infections. The HIV virus also assaults your peripheral nervous process, this causes nerve and muscle pain, in the feet, legs, and hands.

AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome it causes a destruction of the immune process. It is the most advanced stage of the HIV virus (HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus). AIDS is defined by the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC) as the presence of a positive HIV antibody check and or more of the illnesses known as opportunistic infections.

HIV is spread through direct contact with semen or blood of an individual that is infected. This can be transferred in plenty of ways the most common is unprotected sexual activity. Other means of infection are infected blood transfusions, sister to kid (at time of birth, or through breast milk), sharing needles with an infected person, and never a healthcare worker that gets pricked with an infected needle.

Often individuals who are infected with HIV have few signs and in some cases there's none. Other times, signs of HIV are confused with other illnesses such as the flu. This may be extreme, with swollen glands in the neck and armpits, tiredness, fever and night sweats. This is where as much as 9 out of ten of the infected individuals will create AIDS. At this point the person may feel healthy and not even know that he/she has the virus. The next stage begins when the immune process starts to break down and the virus becomes more aggressive in damaging white cells. Several glands in the neck and armpits may swell and stay swollen for an extended timeframe without any explanation. As this illness progresses boils or warts may spread over the body. They may also feel tremendously worn out, night sweats, high fevers, chronic diarrhea, and they may lose a substantial amount of their body weight. Most cases have shown thrush as a symptom as well. At this point the person is in the final stages of HIV--AIDS. Extreme chest infections with high fever are common and survival rate is above 70% but decrease with each recurrence.

CDC Recommends

Drug companies and makers of oral tests stand to benefit significantly from this change of emphasis. It is expected that tests which are now administered at hospitals and clinics will soon be available over the counter. People interested in testing themselves will be able to do it at home. This ought to lead to a significant increase in sales of HIV testing kits.

It is also hoped that early detection will lead to less transmission of the disease. A recent CDC survey found that sexually-active adults altered their sexual behavior patterns after they were diagnosed with HIV. They were less likely to engage in unprotected sexual activity, in plenty of cases opting for a condom or for not engaging in sex at all.

Some argue that as in so plenty of areas within the health industry, efforts aimed at prevention will get replaced by promises of a speedy cure brought to us compliments of the brilliantly influential and increasingly invasive drug companies.

There ought to even be a rise in HIV treatment drugs as hundreds of thousands of people learn they have HIV and start treatment with anti-HIV drugs. Currently anti-HIV drugs account for about $6-billion in sales in the U.S. That number ought to increase dramatically if the new testing procedures show to be effective.