What Is HIV?
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Your immune system is your body's defense system. While the immune system can control
many viruses, HIV targets and infects the same immune system cells that protect us from
germs and illnesses.
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Without medication to control the virus, HIV usually takes over CD4 cells (protects the
body from diseases and helps body fight infections) and turns them into factories that
produce millions of copies of the virus. As the virus makes copies, it damages or kills the
CD4 cells, weakening the immune system. This is how HIV causes AIDS.
However, not everyone who is living with HIV has AIDS, or will ever have AIDS. Today many
people can have HIV and still be healthy. There is no cure for HIV infection. However, with
increasing access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care, including for
opportunistic infections, HIV infection has become a manageable chronic health condition,
enabling people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives.
What Is AIDS?
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When the immune system loses too many CD4 cells, the body is less able to fight off
infections and can develop serious, often deadly, infections like opportunistic infections.
Opportunistic Infections – infections caused by an organism that does not normally cause disease
Without HIV medicine, people with AIDS typically survive about 3 years. Once someone has a
dangerous opportunistic illness, life expectancy without treatment falls to about 1 year. HIV
medicine can still help people at this stage of HIV infection, and it can even be lifesaving. But
people who start HIV medicine soon after they get HIV experience more benefits.
CAUSATIVE AGENTS
HIV 1 – attacks body’s immune system
HIV 2 - is characterized by lower transmissibility and reduced likelihood of progression to AIDS
HIV-2 occurs in a much smaller number of people, mostly in West Africa. It is harder to transmit
HIV-2 from person to person, and it takes longer for the infection to turn into AIDS. It is possible
for one person living with HIV to carry several different strains of HIV in their body at the same
time.
Incubation Period - the period between the infection of an individual by a pathogen and the
manifestation of the illness or disease it causes.
Lymphadenopathy - swollen glands or swelling of the lymph nodes. The lymph glands are part
of the immune system and help fight infections and other disease. They are enlarged when the
body is fighting infection or other diseases.
Oral Candidiasis – yeast infection of the mouth
Oral Hairy Leukoplakia – a condition triggered by a virus called Epstein-Barr which causes white
patches on the tongue and these patches may look hairy
Pneumocystic Carinii Pnemonia (Pneumocystis Jiroveci Pneumonia) – is the most common
opportunistic infection that occurs in immunosuppressed populations
Kaposi’s Sarcoma – disease in which cancer cells are found in the skin or mucous membranes
that line the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, from mouth to anus, including the stomach and intestines.
Lymphoma - that begin in the lymphatic system (the various lymph glands around the body) when
abnormal white blood cells grow.
Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Essay (ELISA) - used to detect and quantify substances,
including antibodies, antigens, proteins, glycoproteins, and hormones
Western Blot - separates the blood proteins and detects the specific proteins (called HIV
antibodies) that indicate an HIV infection
Antiretroviral Drugs – stops the virus from replicating in the body and allows the immune system
to repair itself and prevent further damage