HIV Treatments and Reducing Drug Resistance
Abstract
HIV is a retrovirus that will constantly attack human’s immune system once an individual is infected and will eventually develop to AIDS, often a deadly sexually transmitted disease. Currently, there are different kinds of antiretroviral treatments available for patients who are tested to be HIV positive as well as patients with AIDS. HIV can easily develop resistance to its treatment through mutation each generation, which leads to ineffectiveness in treatment. The only way to continue to fight off HIV is to change treatment that is still available. Patients have to cooperate with experienced doctors by adhering to their professional recommendations, while doctors are responsible for closely monitoring the patient’s conditions through test results and their body’s response to treatment, as well as helping them to live healthily without serious damage to their immune system over a long period of time.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus, commonly known as HIV, is the retrovirus that causes a desperate worldwide epidemic that afflicts human beings – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, abbreviated as AIDS. When the body is infected with HIV, the immune system will respond by making antibodies to fight against this particular infection (AIDS.org, 2003). As a result, to determine whether a person is infected, a sample of blood is extracted and the test will look for antibodies fighting against HIV. This kind of blood test is known as HIV testing. Even though HIV is the actual cause of AIDS, a person who is positive in the HIV Testing does not necessarily mean that the person has AIDS (AIDS.org, 2004). When a person is infected with HIV, the virus will gradually damage the immune sys...
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“Clinically, the HIV infected adolescents present as physically stunted individuals, with delayed puberty and adrenarche. Mental illness and substance abuse are important co-morbidities” (Naswa, 2010). Naswa, 2010 also reports that adolescences with HIV have a higher susceptibility rate to contract STD’s that the average individual due to the thinner lining of mucus in the ovaries at this stage of their development. The stigma of living with HIV is also a factor for her psychosocial development. The fact that she contracted this disease from her father further contributes to emotional trauma.
Human immunodeficiency virus infection / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system transmitted between people by the mixing of bodily fluids. It is an extremely deadly disease that has killed over thirty-six mi...
In addressing the prevention of the spread of the HIV virus in prisons, we have seen a rush to develop and implement prevention measures. Much attention has centered on such controversial issues as compulsory or voluntary blood testing, isolation versus integration of HIV infected inmates into the prison mainstreams, provision of condoms and disposable needles, and effective educational measures for specific groups within the prison.
Infection with HIV does not necessarily mean that a person has AIDS, although people who are HIV-positive are often mistakenly said to have AIDS. In fact, a person can remain HIV-positive for more than ten years without developing any of the clinical illnesses that define and constitute a diagnosis of AIDS. In 1997 an estimated 30.6 million people worldwide were living with HIV or AIDS—29.5 million adults and 1.1 million children. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 1981, when the first AIDS cases were reported, and the end of 1997...
HIV, also known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. If left untreated, HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells in the body, which makes a person more likely to get infections or infection-related cancers. HIV can also lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), if it is not being treated (aids.gov). There is no effective cure for HIV, however with proper treatment and medical care, HIV can be controlled. In
Spink, Gemma. "AIDS." AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 23 Dec 2009. Web. 11 Jan 2010. .
"Demanding that life near AIDS is an inextricably other reality denies our ability to recreate a sustaining culture and social structures, even as we are daily required to devote such time to the details of the AIDS crisis." -Cindy Patton
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retro virus that causes AIDS. HIV is a virus that can only be contracted between human to human. HIV weakens your immune system because this virus is destroying cells that fight diseases and infection in your body. A virus can only produce itself by taking over a cell in the body of its h...
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) leads to the life threatening Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV only lives in the blood and other bodily fluids. Concentrations of HIV are small in vomit, sweat, tears, and saliva and cannot be transmitted by those fluids. The main transmission is through fluids like semen, vaginal fluids, and rectal mucous during sexual contact, breast milk and amniotic fluid passing to children, and blood during transfusions and exposure. Beginning stages of HIV start with the acute infection. During the first 2 weeks to a month after exposure to the HIV infection, most infected individuals with display symptoms of a severe flu. The symptoms include fever, swollen glands, sore throat, rash, muscle and joint aches and pains, fatigue, and headache. The early period of infection is known as the “acute retroviral syndrome” (Stages, 2013). Once the virus is out of the acute stage it enters into the latency stage where it continues to replicate but no symptoms are shown. As the infection progresses and the immune system beco...
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) first came to light in 1981. There has been a long and arduous global effort on the prevention of HIV/AIDS. HIV is a virus that is spread through body fluids that affect the specific T-cells of the immune system. Without treatment HIV infection leads to AIDS and there is no cure for AIDS. HIV infection can be controlled and the importance of primary pre...
When HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) was first discovered as a disease in 1980, the affected individuals were stigmatized to the extreme. HIV/AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) was first reported with homosexuals and IV drug users, which led the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to label the disease as Gay-related Immune Deficiency, as “gay” individuals were synonymous “drug users” due to their similar activities in the 1980’s (Stine 22). However, it soon became clear that female population were just as susceptible to contracting HIV as males.
A country once in denial now has it’s South African political leaders addressing the disease that is slowing killing their population The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which evolves into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is affecting South Africa socially as well as economically. This disease is also leaving over a million and a half children orphaned. Most of these children are not only orphaned but living with the virus as well.
In 1981, a new fatal, infectious disease was diagnosed--AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome). It began in major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. People, mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users, were dying from very rare lung infections or from a cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma. They have not seen people getting these diseases in numerous years. Soon, it also affected hemophiliacs, blood recipients, prostitutes and their customers, and babies born from AIDS-infected women. AIDS was soon recognized as a worldwide health emergency, and as a fatal disease with no known cure, that quickly became an epidemic. When high-profile victims began to contract the virus, such as basketball star Magic Johnson, the feeling spread quickly that anyone, not just particular groups of people, could be at risk. AIDS impairs the human body’s immune system and leaves the victim susceptible to various infections. With new research, scientists think that the disease was first contracted through a certain type of green monkey in Africa, then somehow mutated into a virus that a human could get. AIDS is a complicated illness that may involve several phases. It is caused by a virus that can be passed from person to person. This virus is called HIV, or Human Immuno-deficiency Virus. In order for HIV to become full-blown AIDS, your T-cell count (number of a special type of white-blood cells that fight off diseases) has to drop below 200, or you have to get one of the symptoms of an AIDS-induced infection.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a fatal physical condition that is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus damages the human body’s immune system, so that the body cannot protect itself from bacteria, viruses, and prions that cause diseases. With severely lowered defenses, AIDS patients die from common illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, cold, and tuberculosis. The HIV virus does not directly attack its victim; the disease that patients suffer from after receiving the virus is what hurts and kills them. AIDS is a disease that is transmitted easily through unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing of needles, blood transfusion, and childbirth.
The emergence of HIV/AIDS is viewed globally as one of the most serious health and developmental challenges our society faces today. Being a lentivirus, HIV slowly replicates over time, attacking and wearing down the human immune system subsequently leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) at which point the affected individual is exposed to life threatening illnesses and eventual death. Despite the fact that a few instances of this disease have been accounted for in all parts of the world, a high rate of the aforementioned living with HIV are situated in either low or medium wage procuring nations. The Sub-Saharan region Africa is recognized as the geographic region most afflicted by the pandemic. In previous years, people living with HIV or at risk of getting infected did not have enough access to prevention, care and treatment neither were they properly sensitized about the disease. These days, awareness and accessibility to all the mentioned (preventive methods, care etc.) has risen dramatically due to several global responses to the epidemic. An estimated half of newly infected people are among those under age 25(The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic). It hits hard as it has no visible symptoms and can go a long time without being diagnosed until one is tested or before it is too late to manage.