AIDS is the acronym for AIDS, which stands for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”. The disease is caused by the latent and slow-acting action of a virus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV destroys much of the body’s immune system, leaving patients unable to fight viral infections and certain cancers. Depending on the degree of cellular immune deficiency and clinical manifestations, AIDS is generally classified into three phases as follows.
I. Latent phase
The incubation period of AIDS refers to the time from HIV infection to the appearance of signs and symptoms of AIDS, which is generally 6 months to 5 years, but there are some cases that last for more than 10 years. Most patients have no clinical manifestations during the incubation period, but a few may develop symptoms similar to mononucleosis, such as malaise, fever, swollen lymph nodes and skin rash.
II. Clinical phase
Patients with certain systemic signs and symptoms of AIDS who have not yet demonstrated opportunistic infections or tumors are clinically referred to as AIDS-associated syndrome (ABC), a condition that lies between chronic lymphadenopathy and the development of rare cancers and severe infections of AIDS. Both AIDS-associated syndrome and chronic lymphadenopathy are currently considered to be pre-AIDS.
The clinical manifestations of this stage include.
1. Delayed allergic reaction;
2. Mucosal damage (oral candidiasis) and skin disease (cutaneous simple sores, zoster and fungal disease);
3.Lymphadenopathy lasting more than 5-6 months, with more than 2 lymph nodes in the non-inguinal area;
4.Weight loss >10%;
5, persistent diarrhea;
6.Fever of more than 38℃ for 3 months;
7, fatigue and weakness.
8, night sweats, etc.
AIDS
Typical AIDS is the final result of the development of HIV infection in human body, the clinical manifestations of patients at this stage are
1.Conditionally pathogenic infection.
(1) Pulmonary type: including persistent dry noise, both dyspnea, cough, chest pain and chest
X-ray examination of the lungs with diffuse infiltration. Arterial blood gas analysis, often with mild hypoxemia, histopathological examination with large numbers of Pneumocystis carinii, and pathogenic worms can be found in bronchial lavage fluid or endotracheal biopsies. The recurrence rate is high after stopping treatment. In addition, Legionella, Cryptococcus, Toxoplasma gondii, Cytomegalovirus, and a-herpes virus type I or II can cause pneumonia. Most AIDS patients die from this disease.
(2) Central nervous system type: HIV is neurophilic and can invade the nervous system and can infect the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve cells. Monocytes and macrophages in the CNS are important storage cells for HIV, which can produce the virus and continuously invade other T lymphocytes. This allows symptoms of the CNS to coexist with symptoms caused by various conditional infections. A more common neurological disorder is subacute encephalitis (AIDS encephalopathy or dementia syndrome), which is clinically manifested by fatigue, memory loss, apathy, ataxia, and loss of libido. Later in the disease, dementia, unconsciousness, incontinence, partial paralysis (hemiplegia or paraplegia), and in some patients, even epileptic-like seizures may develop. These signs and symptoms may appear alone or in conjunction with other symptoms of AIDS.
(3) Gastrointestinal type: The main manifestation is massive watery diarrhea, 15 liters per day, progressive weight loss of 20%-40%, and malnutrition in severe cases. Treatment is ineffective, leading to death by dehydration.
(4) Fever of unknown origin: due to pathogenic infection, there is often a persistent increase in body temperature (38-40°C) that can last for more than a few weeks and night sweats. In some cases, intracellular infection with Ureaplasma urealyticum has been confirmed in bone marrow, lymph node or liver biopsy specimens.
2.Malignant tumor
(1) Kopasi sarcoma: As an early manifestation of AIDS, it has an incidence of up to 30% and is included as one of the diagnostic criteria for AIDS. In the early stage, they are red, blue or brown patches, papules, plaques or lumps with smooth and elevated surface. They are more common in the neck, upper limbs and trunk, and the oral mucosa and internal organs can also be involved.
(2) Lymphoma: Several types of lymphoma have been identified in AIDS patients, such as Hodgkin’s disease and Burkitt’s lymphoma. The skin lesions are non-specific and may be papules or nodules, and the diagnosis is mainly based on histopathology.
(3) Squamous carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma: AIDS patients have more chances to develop squamous carcinoma in the oral and anorectal areas, and more chances to develop skin cancer when immune function is suppressed.
The most important basis to confirm the diagnosis of AIDS is whether the patient’s 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 or a specialized hospital approved by the health administration department for examination in a timely manner, and never jump to conclusions on your own.