Human Immunodeficiency Virus and its Consequences

Human Immunodeficiency Virus and its Consequences

HIV is a disease that threatens to kill modern society. All over the world, millions and millions of people are getting infected everyday. It has been established that the agent that causes AIDS is HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). Also what makes this virus so dangerous is the various ways that it can be acquired; the most common ways of transmission are sexual intercourse, blood transfusions, from mother to child at the time of delivery, through infected needles used for drugs.

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Two species of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2; once the virus enters the immune system it incubates and from that point there are three possibilities. The first possibility is that the virus will remain incubated in the blood stream and as a result the individual will appear to be healthy, however he/she can infect other people; these individuals are referred to as Seropositives. The second possibility is that certain individuals may develop AIDS Related Complex, which is a group of symptoms such as fever, weight loss, and lymphadenopathy that is associated with the presence of antibodies to HIV and is followed by the development of AIDS in a certain proportion of cases. The last and most deadly of all possible outcomes arises when HIV destroys partially or completely all defenses in the body, leaving the individual without any chance of survival.

Generally the period when there is first contact with HIV until a full-blown AIDS is developed could take from six to ten years. The study of this disease can be done through the study of different lab analysis or the clinical manifestation that occur. Since 1996 the quantity of the virus circulating through the blood stream has been the main factor used to determine the evolution of the disease. Three week later after being infected, patients experiment a series of flu symptoms such as fever, headache, and nausea; these symptoms disappear within one to two weeks. In addition during these phase, also referred as the phase of acute infection, HIV multiplies to a great extent and therefore mutating genetically. Also, CD4 cells decrease at first and short after they go back up to the appropriate level because the immune system responds to the virus; during this period individuals are highly contagious. During the next phase of the virus there are no symptoms, however the virus continues to multiply. The following phase is referred as symptomatique early phase; this is when some opportunistic infections show at first. The last stage of HIV is AIDS. This is the most severe acceleration of infection with HIV. It is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital organs of the human immune system such as CD4 T cells (a subset of T cells), macrophages and dendritic cells. It directly and indirectly destroys CD4 T cells. Once HIV has killed so many CD4 T cells that there are fewer than 200 of these cells per microliter of blood, cellular immunity is lost. Acute HIV infection progresses over time to clinical latent HIV infection and then to early symptomatic HIV infection and later to AIDS, which is identified either on the basis of the amount of CD4 T cells remaining in the blood, and the presence of certain infections.

The best way to fight AIDS would be to block HIV; however a vaccine has not been developed due to the constant mutations that this virus goes through. The only hope for the people that have this virus is the early discovery and treatment of HIV. Even thought there is no cure for AIDS, there is medicine that can greatly improve the life of these individuals. Azidothymidine (AZT) was a major breakthrough in AIDS therapy in the 1990s that

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