Aids

Aids

A.I.D.S. (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a very deadly disease. It is mostly translated through the blood, sharing needles, sexual intercourse, and when an infected mother breast-feeds her child. In this essay I will show you the causes, symptoms, clinical progression, opportunistic infections, and the treatment you can receive to delay the effects of aids. Aids are caused by two viruses that belong to a group called retroviruses. Researchers in France discovered this in 1983 and in the U.S. in 1984. This was known as the HIV-1. HIV infects certain white blood cells. Some of these cells are the T-helper and the macrophages, which play key roles in the immune system. HIV enters CD4 T-cells. The cell makes more HIV and it spreads to other CD4 cells. The cells eventually die. Even though the immune system makes millions of them everyday HIV kills them off as soon as they are made. HIV must be present for the development of aids. When you have HIV the symptoms you receive every few days tends to be much serious. Then other symptoms are created and are much more severe. These include lymph glands, tiredness, fever, loss of appetite and weight, diarrhea, yeast infections of the mouth and vagina, and night sweats. The virus often infects the brain and nervous system. It may cause memory disorders, movement and coordination problems, weight loss, decline in health, and some cases, death. The progression from the point of HIV infection to the clinical diseases that define aids may take 6 to 10 years. This period of progression can be monitored using surrogate markers or clinical endpoints. When a person has aids the number of their CD4 T-cells, their white blood cells declines in number. Within one to three weeks after infection with HIV, most people experience nonspecific flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, skin rash, tender lymph nodes, and malaise. These symptoms last about one to two weeks. During this phase, known as acute retroviral syndrome, HIV...