HIV / Aids Symptoms

HIV / Aids Symptoms

In General:
HIV / Aids is the abbreviation used for the human immunodeficiency virus. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), a life-threatening disease. HIV / Aids attacks the body's immune system. Normally, the immune system produces white blood cells and antibodies that attack viruses and bacteria. The infection-fighting cells are called T-cell lymphocytes. Months to years after a person is infected with HIV, the virus destroys the T-cell lymphocytes. When the T-cell lymphocytes are destroyed, the immune system can no longer defend the body against diseases and tumors. Various infections called opportunistic infections develop that take advantage of the body's weakened immune system. These infections would not normally cause severe or fatal health problems. However, when you have AIDS, the opportunistic infections eventually cause death because your body can no longer defend itself against them. AIDS is the condition of the body being overwhelmed by opportunistic infections and/or tumors.

Leading Causes/Other Factors:
The AIDS virus is NOT spread through the air, in food, or by casual social contact such as shaking hands or hugging. It is passed on only when the blood or body fluids of an infected person mix with someone else's body fluids. This mixing can occur during activities such as unprotected sexual activity, sharing IV needles, birth to an HIV-infected mother, and blood transfusions. The following groups have the highest risk for HIV infection and possible development of AIDS: homosexual men with more than one sexual partner, bisexual men and their partners, intravenous drug users and their sexual partners, people who share needles (for IV drug use, tattooing, or piercing), heterosexuals with more than one sexual partner. People who were given transfusions of blood or blood products, especially people given emergency transfusions of unscreened blood and people given transfusions in countries where the blood is not rigorously screened are also at high risk. Immigrants from areas with many cases of AIDS (such as Haiti and east central Africa), people who have sex with anyone in the above groups, people who have sex with an HIV-infected partner, and infants born to mothers who are HIV infected may also develop HIV and AIDS.

Symptoms:
The symptoms of HIV infection and AIDS are usually the symptoms of the diseases that attack the body because of a weakened immune system. These include fever that lasts from a few days to longer than a month with no other disease present and no other obvious cause, prolonged periods of chills and sweats, and chronic or long-lasting fatigue for which other causes have been ruled out. Loss of appetite or weight, especially loss of more than 10% of body weight, with no other disease or condition present, chronic muscle and joint pain for no known reason, unexplained, long-lasting sore throat, and unexplained, prolonged swelling of the lymph nodes may also be symptoms. Diarrhea, especially if it lasts longer than a month and no other disease is present, repeated, severe yeast infections in your mouth or vagina despite proper treatment, and a certain kind of sores or changes in the skin (herpes) that last more than 4 weeks are also symptoms of HIV. The opportunistic diseases that most frequently affect someone with AIDS include Kaposi's sarcoma, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), tuberculosis, meningitis, and herpes simplex infections.C