What is AIDS?
AIDS is a transliteration of the acronym for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, a lethal disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV.
It was first discovered in the United States in 1981 and officially named by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1982. The disease mainly damages the body’s immune system and destroys the body’s resistance, making the patient susceptible to serious infectious diseases (conditional infections) and malignant tumors that do not easily occur in the general population, and eventually leading to the patient’s death.
When did AIDS exist in our country?
The AIDS virus was introduced to China in 1983 through blood products, and the first AIDS patient was found in 1985, and now it has infected the whole country. 1 million people were infected in 2003, and if we do not take active and effective measures, the number of people infected with AIDS in China will exceed 10 million by 2010, and the consequences will be unthinkable.
How is AIDS transmitted?
People are the only source of HIV infection, and there are three ways of transmission.
First, it is transmitted by sexual contact.
HIV is found in the blood, semen, alveolar fluid, amniotic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva, tears, vaginal secretions, urine, and breast milk of AIDS patients, but now it can only be confirmed that blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk are infectious. If you have sexual contact with a person infected with HIV, including same-sex and heterosexual contact, including vaginal, anal and oral sex, you can be infected with HIV, which is the most common main way of transmission of HIV.
Second, it is blood transmission.
It can also be transmitted by sharing unsterilized needles and syringes through drug injection; it can also be transmitted by sharing unsterilized medical equipment with HIV, razors, toothbrushes, tattoos, eyebrow tattoos, ear piercing needles, etc.
Third, it is mother-to-child transmission.
When a mother with AIDS is pregnant, the virus can be transmitted to the fetus or infant through the placenta or birth canal, and also through breast milk, and HIV infection in infants and children is mainly transmitted from mother to child.
Can HIV be transmitted from daily work and life contact?
Although AIDS is a terrible and deadly disease, it is only transmitted through sexual intercourse, blood and mother-to-child transmission, and is not highly contagious.
AIDS is not transmitted by shaking hands with a person infected with HIV, eating at the same table, using transportation together, taking a bath together, sleeping in the same bed, swimming in the same pool, sharing water, sharing toilets, working or studying together, wearing clothes, talking on the phone, touching, talking, sneezing, coughing, hugging, etc. It is also not transmitted through general social kissing. There are no cases of HIV transmission from mosquito bites or cockroaches, so general daily work and life contacts do not transmit HIV.
Can AIDS be transmitted by people who are engaged in AIDS diagnosis or care?
Even if staff directly engaged in AIDS diagnosis and care are in contact with blood, secretions or wounds of AIDS patients, as long as they pay attention to sterilization and isolation, their infectiousness is much lower than that of hepatitis B virus. That is why many countries have now admitted AIDS patients from general hospitals, mostly in general wards or set up a specialized unit. Only a few cases of HIV infection due to skin prick have been reported among medical staff and laboratory workers caring for AIDS patients. Epidemiological surveys have also shown that the chance of infection in hospitals is very low and that medical staff will not be infected with HIV as long as they follow strict protocols.
What are the clinical manifestations of AIDS?
The clinical symptoms of AIDS are complex. The incubation period is usually 6 months to 8-10 years or longer. In 1993, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) divided HIV-infected patients into three categories, A, B and C, based on their clinical manifestations.
Type A.
1. Acute infection usually asymptomatic, sometimes with flu-like symptoms, malaise, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and positive serum HIV antibodies.
2. Asymptomatic infection with positive serum HIV antibodies but no clinical symptoms.
3, persistent generalized lymph node swelling, swollen lymph nodes >1 cm in diameter in more than two sites outside the groin, lasting for more than 3 months for unknown reasons.
Type B.
Organic disease with AIDS (AIDS)-related syndrome with night sweats, wasting >10%, fever, diarrhea >1 month, malaise, and fatigue. May have hairy mucous membrane leukoplakia, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, infectious molluscum contagiosum, impetigo, folliculitis, chronic lymphomegaly, hepatosplenomegaly. Positive HIV antibody, positive HIV antigen, decreased T4 cells, decreased lymphocytes, decreased platelets, anemia, accelerated hematocrit.
Type C.
All are AIDS cases, seen as.
1, neurological diseases: cerebral atrophy, headache, impaired consciousness, dementia, myelopathy-ankylosing lower limb light paralysis, peripheral neuropathy.
2. Secondary infectious diseases.
(1) Central nervous system: there can be encephalitis caused by herpes virus and atypical mycobacteria. Meningitis is caused by Toxoplasma gondii and novel cryptococcal infections.
(2) Lung: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia: there is malaise, fever, cough, and retrosternal pain. Tuberculosis and other pneumonia due to Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, viruses, and cryptococci.
(3) Gastrointestinal tract: oral pain, dysphagia, diarrhea, and wasting are most common. In the oropharynx there may be candidiasis, herpes simplex, ulcers, aphthous ulcers, hairy mucous membrane leukoplakia, and thrush. Esophageal candidiasis can have small intestinal diarrhea and wasting, caused by Cryptococcus, atypical mycobacteria. Colonic diarrhea is caused by Cryptococcus, Herpes simplex virus infection, watery stools in which there are not many white blood cells. In the anus can have perianal ulcers by herpes simplex virus infection.
(4) Hepatitis, abdominal pain, fever, and elevated transaminases by viruses, atypical mycobacteria, toxoplasma, and fungal infections.
(5) Skin: The incidence of skin disease in HIV infection is as high as 79%, skin disease is the first manifestation of HIV infection or AIDS patients, such as when the general skin disease manifested more serious or difficult to treat, should be considered to have the possibility of underlying HIV infection, these skin disease can not be “cured”, but treatment can reduce These skin conditions cannot be “cured”, but treatment can reduce the symptoms and make the patient feel comfortable.
Staphylococcus aureus skin infections and systemic infections, bacterial angiomatosis, syphilis, herpes simplex, herpes zoster virus causing acute or disseminated, chronic ulcerative or chronic hyperkeratotic herpes zoster, recurrent infectious molluscum contagiosum, oral trichomatous leukoplakia, condyloma acuminata or other warts, oral candidiasis, dermatophytosis, scabies, seborrheic dermatitis, psoriasis, limited or generalized pruritic papules or papules, dry skin, sore mouth stomatitis, Kaposi’s sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and primary lymphoma of the brain.
The Centers for Disease Control in the United States, based on CD4+ T lymphocyte count results, each clinical type is divided into three classes, except for type C all belong to AIDS cases, where CD4+ T lymphocytes > 200/microliter or CD4+ T lymphocytes percentage < 14% HIV infection are reported as AIDS cases, then the use of drugs to prevent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, such as AIDS If CD4+ T-lymphocytes >500/microliter in HIV-infected patients, then antiretroviral drugs are used.