HIV/AIDS summary

Types of Treatment

Types of Treatment

• Antretroviral Therapy (ART), the use of HIV medicines, is recommended for everyone who has HIV
• Doesn't cure HIV, but it helps infected hosts live a longer and healthier life
• Reduces risks of HIV transmission
• There are seven types of drugs based on effectiveness and response the host gives to them
• Drug Resistance - when HIV mutates into various forms that are not effected by the drugs the host takes to fight off the virus

Side Effects of Treatment

Side Effects of Treatment

• Side effects of medication include:
• Nausea and Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Difficulty sleeping
• Dry mouth
• Headache
• Rash
• Dizziness and Fatigue
• Pain
• Most newer drugs cause less side effects while the ones that cause more are usually still manageable

Starting Treatment

Starting Treatment

• A virus carrying host should start treatment immediately; conditions such as pregnancy, AIDS, HIV-related illnesses, and co-infections make it even more important to start sooner
• HIV can establish itself throughout the body if left untreated (primary infection), then once it builds up enough, the immune system would become too weak to defend the host (chronic phase/AIDS - usually fatal)

The First and ONLY Two Cured

Hosts/Doctors

Timothy Ray Brown:

• 1st person cured
• Diagnosed in 1995; later diagnosed with a blood cancer
• Underwent cell transplantation in 2008
• Cured HIV; deemed "The Berlin Patient" to keep anonymity

"The London Patient":

• 2nd person cured
• Announced March 2019
• Diagnosed with a blood cancer and received ART therapy
• Experienced graft-versus-host disease
• Underwent cell transplantation which cured the HIV

Celebrities

Freddie Mercury:

• Diagnosed in 1987
• Kept virus private for years until he announced it on Nov. 23, 1991, dying the next day

Charlie Sheen:

• Diagnosed in 2011; Announced in 2015
• Not sure how he contracted it
• Still had sexual intercourse with numerous woman between 2011 and 2015, paying them to keep the secret quiet
• Takes 4 medications a day to treat HIV

Why are so many people living with AIDS?

-Lack of signs of H.I.V.

-A.I.D.S. is the third step of H.I.V

-Many people living with H.I.V. are unaware, and it develops into A.I.D.S. without their knowledge

-Cannot treat something if you don’t know you have it

-How it’s spread

-Bodily Fluid (mainly blood)

-Sexual Activity and Drugs

-Lack of cure

-At the moment there is no cure to A.I.D.S.

-They can treat the symptoms to prolong your life, but cannot get rid of A.I.D.S. completely

How areas affected have changed

-Areas have mostly remained the same

-A.I.D.S. originated in Africa, and has remained there ever since

-It spread rapidly throughout the entire globe

-Over the years less people have become infected in each area

-Europe and North America have especially decreased, and Southern Asia is beginning to

-They are working to end the A.I.D.S. pandemic and hope to accomplish it in 10 years from now

Why are the Mortality Rates High?

-Treatment:

-There is no cure, only treatment to help and slow it down There isn’t enough treatment for everyone in the world (not available or to expensive)

-Treatment isn’t guaranteed to stop H.I.V. from developing into A.I.D.S.

-You have to find the signs and get treatment early on to not get A.I.D.S.

-Infected:

-Once infected with A.I.D.S. you are not likely to live very long (weakened immune system)

-With A.I.D.S. it is most likely you will only survive around 4 years, although it depends on many factors (type of illness, receiving treatment, overall health etc.)

How Rates have Changed

-The mortality rate (although very high) is nothing like it was previously

-More people are getting infected (1.7 million), but the death rate (770,000) is much lower

-At beginning of the epidemic (1981): almost everyone who got A.I.D.S. died from it, and it spread to every region in the world in less than three years

-Great improvement over the last ten years (2010-present)

-All regions have improved on their prevention methods of H.I.V.

-They hope to end the epidemic by 2030

Through a plan called 90-90-90

-By the 1920's the disease spread to the city of Kinshasa in Belgian Congo.​

-Reuse of needles caused the disease to explode within the city. ​

-The virus splits into two subtypes:​

-A travels to India​

-B travels to Haiti​

-In the 60’s Haitians came to the newly independent Congo to help the new nation. Many contracted the disease unknowingly and when they returned to Haiti the disease followed them. ​

-It is speculated that a single unsanitary blood bank spread HIV to the entire country.​

Early Spread

-In 1969 the disease reaches the US and is mostly ignored until the 80’s​

-Initially doctors did not know what to think other than that people were getting sick from normally benign sources. ​

-Unfortunately, this trend was first observed in gay men causing resentment among many Americans.​

-In 1983 Luc Montagnier and his colleague Francoise Barre-Sinoussi deduce that the cause must be virus and the two discover a new retrovirus in infected individuals.​

-In ’86 AIDs is given its official name HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)​

Arrival in America

Aftermath

-In recent years developed nations have managed to stop the spread of AIDS through precise combinations of antiviral drugs intended to attack the virus at various points in its life cycle.​

-Unfortunately, these drugs are expensive and developing nations simply can’t afford them as a consequence AIDS is still very prevalent in poor or war-torn areas of the world like South Africa and the Middle East. ​

-HIV can survive in dried blood at room temperature for up to 6 days or a week if in wet blood

-HIV is sensitive to extreme heat but not extreme cold. It dies in temperatures of 60° Celsius (140° Fahrenheit)

-There are 2 different strains of HIV which are expected to have spread to humans from two different types of primates.

-HIV had been found in saliva however sharing cups or utensils has never been shown to spread HIV or AIDS

-Although HIV/AIDS is not cureable, it is treatable. Antibiotics and other prescriptions have made it possible for people to live with HIV/AIDS

-Even though AIDS/HIV is spread through bodily fluids, tick mosquitos and other blood sucking parasites can not spread the disease

General

General Cause

HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease and can be spread by means of sexual orientation

HIV infection is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.

Specific Causes

- Unprotected sex with someone who has HIV.

- Sharing drug needles with someone who is infected with HIV.

- Mother to baby during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding.

HIV to AIDS

HIV destroys CD4 T cells. The fewer CD4 T cells you have, the weaker your immune system becomes.

You can have an HIV infection for years before it turns into AIDS. AIDS is diagnosed when the CD4 T cell count falls below 200 or you have an AIDS-defining complication.

Acute HIV infection

Within 2 to 4 weeks after infection with HIV, about two-thirds of people will have a flu-like illness.

Flu-like symptoms can include:

Fever

Chills

Rash

Night sweats

Muscle aches

Sore throat

Fatigue

Swollen lymph nodes

Mouth ulcers

A few days to several weeks

Some have no symptoms

STAGE 1

Clinical Latency

Stage 2

Chronic HIV infection

In this stage, the virus still multiplies, but at very low levels. People in this stage may not feel sick or have any symptoms.

Last up to 10-15 years without treatment

If your viral load is detectable, you can transmit HIV during this stage, even when you have no symptoms.

Aids

Stage 3

If you have HIV and you are not on HIV treatment, eventually the virus will weaken your body’s immune system and you will progress to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). This is the late stage of HIV infection.

Symptoms of AIDS can include:

Rapid weight loss

Recurring fever or profuse night sweats

Extreme and unexplained tiredness

Prolonged swelling of the lymph glands in the armpits, groin, or neck

Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week

Sores of the mouth, anus, or genitals

Pneumonia

Red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids

Memory loss, depression, and other neurological disorders

Each of these symptoms can also be related to other illnesses. The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested.

Many of the severe symptoms and illnesses of HIV disease come from the opportunistic infections that occur because your body’s immune system has been damaged.

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