What Are HIV and AIDS? – Stages of AIDS 7th March 2023 – Tags: AIDS, HIV, Stages of AIDS
Despite new and standardised treatments, HIV continues to be a major problem in many countries around the world. According to the WHO, since the beginning of the pandemic some 84 million people have been infected with the virus and 40 million have died. Mostly African countries are affected by the epidemic, although there are also several cases in Poland every year. How can we contract the virus and how do the tests to detect it work? We will find out about this in the following article.
What is the HIV virus?
The HIV virus (from Human immunodeficiency virus) is a pathogen that causes an infectious condition that attacks the immune system. As a result of the infection, the patient develops acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known as AIDS. Specifically, it attacks white blood cells called CD4 cells. As a result of the attack, these cells are destroyed, leading to a weakening of a person’s immune system, allowing infections with other diseases. By weakening the immune system, diseases such as pneumonia, fungal infections, bacterial infections and cancerous conditions are most common in AIDS patients.
What are the stages of AIDS?
HIV infection occurs gradually:
Stage I – acute HIV infection:
- The person with the disease has a large amount of the virus in their blood, making them very contagious
- Very many people report flu-like symptoms in themselves
Stage II – chronic HIV infection
- Otherwise known as asymptomatic HIV infection
- The virus itself is still active and multiplies in the body, despite the absence of health symptoms
- Although there are no signs of illness, the infected person can still transmit the virus to others
- At the end of this stage, when the patient does not receive adequate treatment, the concentration of the virus in the blood increases, and the patient enters the third stage of the disease
Stage III – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
- This is the most serious stage of the disease
- People with AIDS have a severely damaged immune system and are easily affected by various opportunistic infections
- Without treatment, an AIDS patient survives about three years
HIV symptoms
In some people, HIV infection is not reflected by any symptoms. Some patients show flu-like symptoms, however, these may be due to other conditions. In the majority of patients showing symptoms they presented as:
- Sore throat
- Fever
- Enlarged lymph glands
- Rash
- Muscle aches
- Sweating during the night
- Twitching
- Fatigue
- Mouth ulcers
