One of the most serious diseases ontoday is HIV - human immunodeficiency virus. Among other diseases, HIV infection ranks second after cancer. However, many doctors claim that HIV infection is much worse than cancer, since modern medicine has learned to cope with most cancers, while there are no ways to cure HIV infection today. Although, in fairness, it should be noted that modern treatment of HIV infection today brings quite good results. This disease causes a global lesion of the entire immune system of the human body, which completely disrupts its normal functioning. Due to such disruptions in the immune system, various secondary infectious processes develop in the human body and multiple tumors appear. The human immunodeficiency virus can be in the genome of a human cell for three or more years. Even in blood plasma, devoid of any cellular elements, the human immunodeficiency virus retains its viability and activity for at least one year, and sometimes even longer. By the way, doctors say that it is this feature that explains the high risk of infection with the immunodeficiency virus when pricking needles with which people with HIV were previously injected. The history of this disease began in 1981, when doctors first discovered a new virus in the blood of a group of homosexuals in California, which was later named "human immunodeficiency virus". Scientists assume that HIV infection spread from Central Africa. Doctors noted that the presence of such a disease leads to the fact that adults begin to suffer from immunodeficiency after infection. But until now, immunodeficiency was known to doctors only as a congenital defect in children. In these people, infected with a type of virus that was still new to doctors, this same immunodeficiency occurred after the virus entered the body. Doctors studied such patients for a long time to exclude the possibility of a congenital immunodeficiency virus. That is why the disease was called AIDS - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and the virus that causes it - HIV.
Ways of contracting HIV
The disease is infectious - HIVthe infection is transmitted from a person who is either already sick or still a carrier of the virus. In all cases, the human immunodeficiency virus is found in biological fluids such as vaginal secretions, sperm, and blood. Currently, there are several main ways of transmitting HIV infection from person to person:
- Sexual transmission
The share of this method of infection with the virusimmunodeficiency accounts for up to 70% of all cases of infection with this disease. Moreover, there is a fairly widespread misconception that infection occurs only during traditional vaginal intercourse. However, this is not true at all - the chances of becoming infected with the immunodeficiency virus during anal or oral sex are no less. And if there are microtraumas on the mucous membranes, the risk of infection becomes almost 100%. In addition, the risk of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases in sexual partners increase many times. Doctors explain this fact by the fact that, firstly, many venereal diseases provoke the development of ulcers of the mucous membranes of the genitals. And, secondly, we must not lose sight of the fact that venereal diseases, like any other disease, significantly weaken the immune system.
- Transfusion
No less risk of infection with the virusimmunodeficiency also exists if a healthy person receives a blood transfusion or blood components from an HIV-infected person. Fortunately, this is very rare, as all blood donors undergo a thorough examination.
- Using non-sterile tools
Much less often, but still sometimesThere is such a way of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus as the use of non-sterile medical instruments, injection syringes, manicure and cosmetology instruments. Many people have a persistent fear that they will be infected with HIV during a visit to a cosmetology salon or during dental treatment, but in fact the probability of this happening is extremely low. Of all the percentages of infection, this method accounts for no more than 1%.
- Transplantation method
In the event that a person is transplantedone or another organ from a donor infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, infection will occur in almost 100% of cases. However, this also happens extremely rarely.
- Transplacental
This method of transmission of the immunodeficiency virushuman is called the transmission of HIV from a pregnant mother through the placenta to the child itself. Not so long ago, the risk of giving birth to infected children in HIV-positive mothers was approximately 50%. However, modern medicine allows us to reduce this risk to 20%. Doctors identify certain risk groups, people in which have a much higher chance of becoming infected with the human immunodeficiency virus: homosexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts and people with sexually transmitted diseases.
Clinical course of the disease
Human immunodeficiency virus is invadingblood cells that are responsible for the proper functioning of the immune system - into lymphocytes. This is the basis of the principle of action of the immunodeficiency virus - due to a decrease in the normal functioning of the immune system, absolutely any disease can develop. Simply put, a person infected with the immunodeficiency virus suffers from a variety of diseases - he is sick almost non-stop. Like any other disease, the immunodeficiency virus does not make itself known immediately after infection - it has a fairly long incubation period. Moreover, the run-up can be quite impressive - from several months to 15 years. Doctors note that the duration of the incubation period of HIV infection is greatly affected by the route of infection of a person with the virus. For example, it has been reliably established that if the infection occurred sexually, the incubation period will be much shorter than if the person was transfused with blood or its enzymes infected with the immunodeficiency virus. However, it goes without saying that there are exceptions to any rule. Approximately 50% of all people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, already about three weeks after infection, develop a number of signs indicating the onset of pathological processes in the human body. A person may develop a number of such signs as:
- Stable subfebrile temperature, which lasts for two weeks.
- Enlargement of lymph nodes, and any lymph node can become inflamed.
- The increase in the size of the liver and spleen, lasting about two weeks.
- Angina, which, despite intensive treatment, does not take about 10 days.
This reactive state lasts for a maximum offor one month, after which all symptoms disappear spontaneously, without any external intervention. The so-called latent period begins, which can last for a very long time, sometimes many years. And the only possible symptom of the presence of the immune deficiency virus in the body of a sick person can be a persistent increase in lymph nodes. Doctors insist on a blood test if a person has two or more enlarged lymph nodes located in two or more different groups for more than one month. Moreover, the greatest attention should be paid to such groups of lymph nodes as axillary, elbow, posterior cervical and supraclavicular - they suffer much more than all the others when infected with HIV. As a rule, the last days of the incubation period also proceed in a very peculiar way - the lymph nodes enlarge again, there is a very strong fever - the temperature sometimes rises to 40 degrees, a person's physical activity decreases, profuse sweating is noted, especially at night. In addition, sick people often experience intense weight loss - more than ten kilograms within a month, often against the background of severe diarrhea. In some cases, a sick person has a cough, severe shortness of breath, inflammation of the hair follicles, mycosis, hair loss, baldness, seborrheic and atopic dermatitis. If during this period - doctors call it pre-AIDS - a study of the blood composition of a sick person is conducted, it is possible to detect a change in the balance of those components whose function is to protect the body from certain infectious agents. As mentioned above, HIV manifests itself mainly in a disruption of the normal functioning of the body's immune system. Therefore, sick people often develop certain severe infections or various neoplasms. Patients most often experience:
- Pneumonia.The most common disease in sick people is pneumonia, the development of which is provoked by atypical pathogens. The main danger of such pneumonia is that these atypical pathogens practically do not respond to the treatment methods that exist today, and therefore a fatal outcome occurs very quickly, which is very, very difficult to avoid, and often completely impossible.
- Central nervous system damage.Approximately every third patient has damage to the central nervous system. The most common neurological diseases are actively progressing dementia, encephalitis and meningitis, as well as the development of certain tumors of the brain, and less often, the spinal cord.
- Skin lesions.Approximately 20% of all people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus have some kind of skin or mucous membrane lesions. As a rule, the skin and mucous membranes are affected by a certain type of sarcoma – inflammation and proliferation of blood vessels that are located in the mucous membranes and skin. Moreover, for people with HIV, the location of these tumors is typically very unusual – on the mucous membranes of the mouth, on the neck, head, in the perianal area. The course of tumor development is extremely active, even lymph nodes and internal organs can be involved in the process.
- In addition, some patients observedcryptococcosis and candidiasis, as well as such viral lesions as a simple herpes virus that affect not only the skin but also the mucous membranes of the internal organs - the stomach, intestines, lungs. And these lesions can be very extensive - up to 50 - 70% of the entire surface of the skin or mucous membranes.
Symptoms of AIDS
Despite the fact that recentlyBlood tests to detect HIV antibodies are very common, and most often the disease is discovered only after a doctor notices a number of symptoms that can occur in people with AIDS. These symptoms include:
- Increased body temperature
A sick person, and his attending physician, mustbe wary if the body temperature remains elevated for a month or more, without any apparent reason for this - it is necessary first of all to exclude the possibility of the presence of any hidden inflammatory processes. Moreover, the body temperature can be very different - from low - 37.2 - 37.5, to very significant figures - 39 - 40 degrees.
- Dry cough
Doctors may also observe a persistent dry cough in such patients, lasting for several months. As a rule, X-ray images do not reveal any pathologies.
- An intestinal disorder
In almost all cases of AIDSthe patient complains of persistent diarrhea, which can last for months. In addition to diarrhea, there are other signs of intestinal disorder - increased gas formation, bloating, often the presence of dysbacteriosis.
- Headache
Headaches that occur systematically and notthat occur after taking painkillers are also often a companion of HIV infection and AIDS. However, it goes without saying that it is imperative to exclude all other possible causes that can provoke headaches.
- Deterioration of the general condition of a person
In all cases without exception it is noteda strong deterioration in a person's general health and well-being. He complains of rapid fatigue, weakness, emotional instability. At the slightest exertion, a person's hands and feet begin to tremble, cold sticky sweat appears, and his heartbeat quickens.
- The increase in lymph nodes, as mentioned above, decreased body weight for no apparent reason
Of course, the presence of one or even severalthe above-described signs in no way indicate that a person is HIV-infected. Similar symptoms can be caused by a huge number of various diseases that have absolutely nothing to do with HIV infection. But be that as it may, a sick person should seek medical help from a doctor as soon as possible, who will be able to accurately determine the cause of the ailment and prescribe the necessary treatment. However, if a doctor offers a person to donate blood for testing for HIV antibodies, you should not refuse, citing the fact that this possibility is completely excluded. Unfortunately, absolutely no one is insured against this disease. And if for some reason the functioning of the immune system is disrupted, the human immunodeficiency virus that has subsided in the body can manifest itself very quickly, and in a very acute form. And if the disease is not diagnosed as soon as possible, and appropriate treatment for HIV infection is not started, the consequences can be very serious - a person's life expectancy will decrease from an average of 10 years to 1 - 3 years. And even during this short time without treatment, the person's condition will be much worse. Therefore, you should not take with hostility the doctor's offer to test blood for HIV.
Diagnosis of HIV and AIDS
Typically, a person who learns that he is HIV positiveinfected, experiences severe psychological shock. And this is a completely natural reaction, because HIV infection completely changes a person's way of life. A sick person can experience a variety of feelings - fear, anger, despair, panic. These feelings are completely natural and should not be embarrassed by them. However, in no case should you close yourself off and refuse help. There are a huge number of organizations that help HIV-infected people. As a rule, psychologists work in them who will help you accept and understand the fact of the disease and fight for your life. And doctors in such organizations have a lot of experience working with HIV-infected patients - they know exactly how to help each specific patient. Timely treatment allows HIV-infected people to live up to 15, and sometimes up to 20 years. Agree, this is not such a small figure, especially considering the fact that without timely specific therapy, life expectancy is rarely more than three, maximum five years. Moreover, most HIV-infected people mistakenly believe that they will feel very unwell all these years of their lives. However, this is not true at all - if treatment was started in a timely manner, a person can lead a practically full life. Although, of course, a certain number of restrictions still exist - and first of all, a person is closely connected with various pharmacological drugs, without which modern therapy of HIV infection is simply impossible. In order to start the treatment necessary in this case, the doctor must accurately diagnose the presence of HIV infection. Diagnosis of the disease in all cases begins with collecting anamnesis, which includes the living conditions of the sick person, his lifestyle, and the clinical picture of the disease. If the doctor has reason to believe that a person may be infected with the immunodeficiency virus, he will prescribe specific serological and virological blood tests. Antibodies to HIV are detected within a month after infection.
Treatment of HIV infection
Before I start talking about HIV treatmentinfection, it is worth briefly explaining how HIV differs from AIDS. After the human immunodeficiency virus significantly affects the immune system, which stops functioning normally, a person begins to have various infectious diseases in a severe form, or tumors appear - in a word, his condition worsens significantly. This is exactly when doctors talk about AIDS. HIV therapy should be started as early as possible - this will help prevent the development of AIDS and, accordingly, all associated diseases. Often people ignore the need for special treatment, but this should not be done under any circumstances - despite the fact that for a very long time the disease does not manifest itself in any way, the immunodeficiency virus has the most negative effect on the immune system of the infected person. And timely treatment will allow a person to stay healthy as long as possible and delay the development of AIDS. For these purposes, doctors use a fairly large number of different methods. Here are the main ones:
- Suppression of the virus
Almost from the first day after HIV diagnosisinfection, a sick person must receive specially developed pharmacological drugs that have a detrimental effect on the life cycles of the virus, significantly suppressing its development, reproduction and life processes. These drugs belong to the group of antiretroviral drugs.
- Antiretroviral drugs
As HIV infection progresses, doctorsexpand the range of antiviral drugs used. This need is dictated by the following feature of the human immunodeficiency virus - if the same antiviral drug acts on the virus for a very long time, its effect will gradually weaken, up to complete immunity of the immunodeficiency virus. This phenomenon is called viral resistance. Accordingly, it is easy to guess that further treatment with the same drug does not bring the expected result - the disease continues to progress. And in this case, doctors have to resort to a kind of trick - to combined antiretroviral therapy. The essence of this therapy is to select the optimal combination of several antiviral drugs at once, resistance to which the human immunodeficiency virus is almost impossible to develop. However, please note - there is no universal scheme of antiretroviral therapy - in each specific case it is selected individually for each specific initiated person. In this case, many factors are taken into account, such as the amount of antibodies, clinical manifestations and many others. It is quite rare, but there are still cases when the immunodeficiency virus may develop some decrease in susceptibility to this method of therapy. Doctors monitor the patient throughout the entire period of treatment, so at the first signs of a decrease in the effectiveness of drug therapy, the regimen for taking pharmacological drugs is immediately modified.
- Prevention of opportunistic infections.
As the disease progresses, the virusHuman immunodeficiency virus affects the immune system cells more and more, thereby disrupting its proper functioning. As a result, there is a very high risk of developing various infections. Due to the specific nature of this disease, treatment of almost any infection becomes very problematic. It is because of this feature that doctors prefer to prescribe preventive treatment to HIV-infected people aimed at preventing the occurrence of infectious diseases. For this, various antimicrobial pharmacological drugs are used. This therapy is effective only for preventing various secondary diseases that develop as a result of disruption of the human immune system. In relation to the human immunodeficiency virus itself, such treatment tactics are absolutely ineffective - these pharmacological drugs do not cause any harm to the virus.
- Vaccination of a sick person
In addition to the diseases that are based on thator other inflammatory process, people with HIV infection are also threatened by all sorts of viral diseases. In order to prevent a possible disease, doctors offer HIV-infected people several ways. The first way is the simplest - during outbreaks of epidemics - usually in the autumn - spring period, a sick person should try to refuse to visit places of mass gatherings of people, up to complete isolation, up to strict home regime. The second way is vaccination against various diseases. Pay special attention - vaccination really helps to protect an HIV-initiated person from a huge number of infectious diseases. However, there is one small, but very significant nuance - vaccination can only be done at the initial stage of the disease, when the cells of the human immune system are damaged to an insignificant degree, and therefore, are still able to properly produce antibodies to a particular disease. Vaccination of a person with AIDS will be absolutely useless at best, and at worst will only provoke the development of the disease, depending on what type of vaccine and for what disease was used. Therefore, it is very important to make all injections in a timely manner, while there is still time. Which vaccines are necessary - should be decided by the attending physician of the HIV-infected person. If we summarize all the information, we get the following picture. The goal of therapy for both HIV infection and AIDS is to suppress the reproduction of viruses and their vital activity, thereby reducing their number in the body of a sick person. In addition, if a person has HIV infection, treatment should be comprehensive. For the normal functioning of the human body, it is very important to preserve the remaining functions of the immune system and try to restore the lost ones as much as possible. In addition, symptomatic therapy is very important. Despite all the efforts of doctors, sometimes it is still impossible to avoid some diseases. And in no case should we forget that due to a poorly functioning immune system for an HIV-infected person, even a common cold is a serious enough disease that threatens health. Therefore, at the first signs of any disease, a person should consult a doctor as soon as possible. You should not be left alone with your trouble and illness. Long gone are the days when people with HIV were treated with hostility and prejudice. As practice shows, anyone can become infected - so doctors will never judge you. We recommend reading:
