In reality, most people’s faces turn pale when they talk about AIDS, which shows that people are very afraid of this disease. Perhaps people only know about AIDS on the surface, but they do not know anything about medical knowledge. Today I will give you a brief explanation of the prevention and transmission of AIDS.
I. What is AIDS?
AIDS, also known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is a very dangerous infectious disease caused by infection with HIV, a virus that attacks the human immune system. HIV infection can take several years or even up to 10 years of incubation period before developing into AIDS patients, who may develop various infections such as herpes zoster, oral mycobacterial infections, tuberculosis, enteritis caused by specific pathogenic microorganisms, pneumonia, encephalitis, nymphoma, etc. due to the extreme decrease of body resistance. In the later stages, malignant tumors often occur, and long-term depletion occurs, leading to death by systemic failure. Although many medical researchers around the world have made tremendous efforts, no specific medicine has been developed to cure AIDS, and there is no effective vaccine for prevention. AIDS has been listed as a Class B infectious disease in China, and is also listed as one of the infectious diseases under national health surveillance.
II. Clinical manifestations of AIDS
The onset of the disease is more frequent in young adults, with 80% of the onset of the disease occurring between the ages of 18 and 45, i.e., the age group with a more active sex life. Once the disease develops into AIDS, the patient can develop various clinical manifestations.
1.General symptoms
Persistent fever, weakness, night sweats, and persistent widespread generalized lymph node enlargement. Especially the swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit and groin are more obvious. The lymph nodes are more than 1 cm in diameter, firm in texture, movable and painless. Weight loss can be more than 10% within 3 months, up to 40%, and the patient’s wasting is especially obvious.
2.Respiratory symptoms
Long-term cough, chest pain, dyspnea, and blood in sputum in severe cases.
3.Gastrointestinal symptoms
Decreased appetite, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and in severe cases, blood in the stool. Drugs usually used to treat digestive tract infections are not effective for this kind of diarrhea.
4.Nervous system symptoms
Dizziness, headache, unresponsiveness, mental retardation, mental abnormalities, convulsions, hemiplegia, dementia, etc.
5.Skin and mucous membrane damage
Herpes simplex, herpes zoster, inflammation and ulceration of the mucous membranes of the mouth and pharynx.
6.Tumor
A variety of malignant tumors may appear.
3.The transmission route of AIDS
AIDS patients and HIV carriers, HIV exists in the body fluids and organ tissues of infected people, and the blood, semen, vaginal secretion, breast milk and wound exudate of infected people contain a large amount of HIV, which is highly infectious. Tears, saliva, sweat, urine, feces, etc. contain very little of this virus when not mixed with blood and inflammatory exudate, and are not infectious.
1.Sexual contact transmission
HIV is present in the semen and vaginal secretions of infected persons and is transmitted between men and women through sexual intercourse (including normal intercourse, anal intercourse and oral sex). Worldwide, 9 out of 10 infections in adults with HIV are transmitted through sexual intercourse, and the more sexual partners you have, the greater your risk of contracting HIV. People with STDs can easily transmit HIV when they have intercourse with an HIV-infected person. Sexual contact transmission is the main route of HIV infection. HIV transmission can occur during both homosexual and heterosexual intercourse. Worldwide, HIV is mostly transmitted through heterosexual contact.
2.Transmission through blood
HIV is mainly transmitted through the importation of HIV-contaminated blood and blood products or the use of HIV-contaminated syringes and needles that have not been strictly sterilized. It can also be spread by using contaminated and not strictly sterilized needles for tattooing, ear piercing, acupuncture, sharing razors, toothbrushes, etc. with patients and infected persons.
3.Mother-to-child transmission
HIV is transmitted from mother to fetus or newborn through blood during pregnancy and delivery or through breast milk after delivery. One third of the children born to women already infected with HIV may be infected with HIV from the mother. Most children with HIV will die before the age of 3.
IV. Prevention of AIDS
The transmission of AIDS depends to a large extent on people’s behavior and habits; therefore, it is entirely possible and doable to prevent AIDS. For personal prevention, in addition to knowledge about AIDS, we must also do the following
1.Be clean, don’t go to illegal blood collection stations to sell blood, don’t get involved in pornographic places, don’t go in and out of certain entertainment places rashly; keep a strong awareness of AIDS prevention on all occasions; don’t have any luck; don’t try drugs out of curiosity.
2. Go to regular clinics and hospitals for treatment when you are sick, pay attention to the safety of blood transfusion, and do not go to medical units with unreliable sterilization of medical equipment, especially individual clinics for injections, tooth extraction, acupuncture and surgery. Do not use unsterilized instruments for ear piercing, tattoos, beauty.
3, do not share razors, toothbrushes, etc., try to avoid contact with other people’s bodily fluids, blood, contaminated items by others to disinfect in a timely manner.
4. HIV-positive people should be prohibited from donating blood and providing other bodily fluids. Women with AIDS should be told not to feed their babies mouth-to-mouth; menstrual blood should be handled especially well during menstruation and should not be contaminated with other things; condoms should be used when having sex to prevent infection of others. At the same time, try to convince the patient not to get pregnant, because the HIV can be transmitted to the offspring during pregnancy.
5. Sexual partners and spouses of AIDS patients should be regularly tested for HIV antibodies; other members of the family of an antibody-positive person should also be tested for HIV in areas where conditions exist.
In conclusion, AIDS can be prevented. The most important thing is to abide by governmental decrees and sexual ethics, and pay special attention to illegal black blood clinics – no matter how poor you are, you should not sell blood, and no matter how urgent you are, you should not transfuse blood that may be contaminated with HIV to avoid contracting HIV. If there is any suspicion of HIV infection, you can go to local medical research institutes, regular hospitals, provincial and municipal epidemic prevention agencies to be tested; a negative HIV antibody test in one blood draw cannot completely exclude that you are not infected with HIV, and you should be tested regularly.