I. HIV.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infects the cells of the immune system and destroys or impairs their function. The viral infection leads to progressive decline of the immune system and eventually to “immunodeficiency”. Immunodeficiency is considered to occur when the immune system fails to function to fight infection and disease. Infections associated with severe immunodeficiency are called “opportunistic infections” because they can only occur when the immune system is depressed.
AIDS.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is defined as any of more than 20 opportunistic infections or HIV-associated neoplasms that occur in the final stages of HIV infection.
Third, HIV-infected persons – AIDS patients.
A person infected with HIV (i.e., a person who already has HIV in his or her body) is called an HIV-infected person (or an HIV-positive person, which can also be abbreviated as HIV-infected person) before his or her immune function has been severely damaged and no obvious clinical symptoms have appeared. People living with HIV look like normal people. When the body’s immune system is severely damaged by HIV and various secondary infections or tumors develop, the person is called an AIDS patient.
Both HIV-infected people and AIDS patients are infectious.
IV. Transmission.
1.How is HIV transmitted?
HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal or anal) and oral sex with an infected person; importation of HIV-contaminated blood; sharing of HIV-contaminated needles, syringes or other sharp instruments. Transmission from an HIV-infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.
2.Everyday life and work contact will not transmit HIV.
3.Prevention.
(1) Prevention of transmission through sexual contact.
(2)Prevention of transmission through blood.
(3) Prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
4.Symptoms.
(1) Incubation period: It takes 0.5 to 20 years, an average of 7 to 10 years, for a human being to develop AIDS after being infected with HIV, a period called the incubation period. Although HIV-infected people in the incubation period do not have any clinical symptoms, their blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk and organs contain HIV.
(2) Acute infection period: It usually occurs 2 to 4 weeks after the initial HIV infection with flu-like symptoms that last 1 to 3 weeks and then resolve. Fever is most common and may be accompanied by general malaise, headache, night sweats, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sore throat, myalgia, arthralgia, skin rash, and swollen lymph nodes.
(3) Asymptomatic phase: After the acute phase, the infected person turns into the asymptomatic infection phase, or enters this phase directly without acute phase symptoms, which usually lasts for several years. Although there are no symptoms, but due to the continuous replication of HIV in the body, it is equally infectious.
(4) AIDS stage: The AIDS stage will show HIV-related symptoms and be prone to various fatal opportunistic infections and malignant tumors because the immune system is severely damaged. Lesions can be manifested in various organ aspects of the human body class, such as lung, oral cavity, digestive system, nervous system, endocrine system, heart, kidney, eye, joint, skin, etc.
5.Treatment.
There is no drug to cure AIDS, nor is there an effective vaccine, but there are better treatments that can effectively prolong the life of patients and improve their quality of life.