HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HumanImmunodeficiencyVirus;abbr:HIV), or AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus, is a virus that causes defects in the human immune system. human immunodeficiency virus was first discovered in the United States in 1981. It is a lentivirus, a type of retrovirus, that infects cells of the human immune system. There is a complete natural process from HIV infection to disease onset, which is clinically divided into four phases: acute infection, latent phase, pre-AIDS, and typical AIDS phase. Not every infected person will present with all four phases in their entirety, but patients in each stage of the disease can be seen clinically. The different clinical manifestations of the four periods are a gradual and coherent progression of the disease process.
I. Acute infection period
The window period is also at this time. the reaction caused by the stimulation of the organism after HIV invasion of the body. The patient has fever, rash, swollen lymph nodes, and also weakness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and pharyngitis. Some patients also develop acute aseptic meningitis, which manifests as headache, neurological symptoms and meningeal irritation. On peripheral blood examination, the total white blood cell count is normal, or lymphocytes are decreased and monocytes are increased. When this fever and other peripheral symptoms appear about 5 weeks later, serum HIV antibodies may show a positive reaction. Thereafter, a clinically variable length, relatively healthy, asymptomatic incubation period occurs. During the acute infection period, the symptoms are often mild and easily ignored, and should not be treated symptomatically.
Second, the incubation period
The infected person can have no clinical symptoms, but the incubation period is not a resting period, much less a peaceful one, where the virus is continuously multiplying and has a strong destructive effect. The incubation period refers to the time from the beginning of HIV infection to the appearance of clinical signs and symptoms of AIDS. The average incubation period of AIDS is now considered to be 2-10 years. This makes early detection of patients and prevention very difficult.
III. Pre-AIDS
The period of time after the incubation period when AIDS-related signs and symptoms begin to appear until the development of typical AIDS. There are many names for this period, including “AIDS-related syndrome”, “lymphadenopathy-related syndrome”, “persistent pancystic lymphadenopathy”, “pre-AIDS syndrome” and so on. At this point, the patient has the most basic features of AIDS, i.e., cellular immune deficiency, but the symptoms are mild. The main clinical manifestations are
1. Enlarged lymph nodes
This is one of the most important clinical manifestations. It is mainly superficial lymph node enlargement. The sites of occurrence are mostly found in the head and neck, armpit, groin, posterior neck, anterior ear, posterior ear, femoral lymph nodes, submandibular lymph nodes, etc. There are usually at least two or more sites, some as many as a dozen. The enlarged lymph nodes do not respond to general treatment and often remain enlarged for more than six months. About 30% of patients have only superficial lymph node enlargement and no other systemic symptoms.
2. Systemic symptoms
Patients often have symptoms such as general discomfort and muscle pain of viral diseases. About 50% of the patients have fatigue and weakness and periodic low fever, which often last for several months. Night sweats, more than 5 times in 1 month. About 1/3 of patients lose more than 10% of their body weight, and this weight loss cannot be explained by fever alone, nor can adequate caloric supplementation control this weight loss. Some patients have headache, depression or anxiety, some have sensory nerve endings lesions, which may be related to viral invasion of the nervous system, and some may develop reactive mental disorders. 3/4 of the patients may develop splenomegaly.
3. Various infections
In addition to the superficial lymph node enlargement and systemic symptoms mentioned above, patients often develop various specific or recurrent non-fatal infections during this period. Repeated infections will accelerate the progression of the disease and bring the disease into the typical AIDS stage. Approximately half of the patients have relatively severe tinea pedis, usually unilateral, which lacks an effective response to local treatment. Patients often have staphylococcal infections of the axillary and inguinal areas herpetic pustules, and patients often have perianal, genital, weight-bearing areas and oral mucosa infections with acanthosis and common warts viruses. The incidence of herpes simplex of the mouth and lips and herpes zoster of the chest is also significantly higher than in the normal population. Oral Candida albicans is also quite common, manifesting mainly as oral mucosal erosions, congestion, and a cheesy covering.
Other common infections are non-streptococcal pharyngitis, acute and chronic sinusitis, and intestinal parasitic infections. Many patients have increased bowel movements that become dilute and mucus-bearing. This may be associated with proctitis and the attack of a variety of pathogenic microorganisms on the intestinal tract. In addition, hairy white spots may appear in the mouth, and the presence of hairy white spots is an important clue for early diagnosis of AIDS.
4.The typical AIDS stage
Some scholars call it lethal AIDS, which is the final stage of HIV infection. This stage has three basic characteristics.
(1) Severe cellular immune deficiency.
(2) The occurrence of various fatal opportunistic infections. A variety of malignant neoplasms can occur in severe AIDS cases.
(3) The end stage of AIDS, when the immune function is completely collapsed and the patient suffers from a variety of severe syndromes until death.
The most important thing is whether the blood test is positive or not. Therefore, if you suspect that you are infected with HIV, you should go to the local health and quarantine department for examination in a timely manner, and never make a diagnosis by yourself.