AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

What is AIDS?

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS is an incurable and life-threatening disease caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. This virus impacts our body immunity to a greater extent like unable to fight back any form of diseases.The major cause behind this is there is no specific line of treatment for HIV-AIDS.But with effective treatment strategies the disease can be controlled and the diseased can remain healthy for a span of time.

Symptoms

There are quite a lot of symptoms for AIDS but still it varies from individual to individual.Following are the different forms of symptoms −

Primary infection indicating an acute HIV

Many people develop symptoms like normal flu within a span of 2-3 weeks from the onset of virus in our body and the following are symptoms range that can be observed during the that time period −

• High Fever

• Severe Headache

• Terrible Muscle aches and joint pain

• Rashes all over the exposed body parts

• Soreness in throat and mouth sores

• Swollen lymph glands on the neck

• Severe Diarrhoea

• Sudden Weight loss

• Dry Cough

• Excessive sweating at night.

Sometimes we often ignore these symptoms as they signify common cold or fever symptoms and this is the primary phase where viral load increases almost 10 fold and the infection rate goes high.

Symptomatic HIV infection

With time virus multiplications increase along with damaging our immune system and the T and B-lymphocytes constantly fight back with the virus thereby developing mild infections which act as chronic signs and symptoms for the disease like −

• High Fever

• Fatigueness

• Swollen lymph nodes on the neck

• Severe Diarrhoea

• Sudden Weight loss (Most important symptom for the disease)

• Oral yeast infection in the palate region

• Pneumonia

Diagnosis

There are several procedures for testing HIV.Following are some of the tests −

• Antigen & Antibody tests − In these tests the blood is drawn from the diseased patient and the principle of this test is simple antigen-antibody reaction.If the person is positive then the HIV antigens will bind to the respective antibody and if negative there will be no binding of the antigens. Antibodies start generating once exposed to HIV. But the antibody exposure might not be detected early and can be diagnosed 3-6 weeks after the viral entry into the host’s body.

• Antibody tests − In Antibody tests clinicians look for the exact antibodies for the HIV antigens.Hence if the patient is positive then the antibody will bind to the respective antigen.Now-a-days antibody tests can be run at home with the help of a self-test kit.

• Nucleic acid tests or NATS − Nucleic acid tests detect the actual virus present in the blood.Nucleic acid test mainly detects the viral DNA in the blood of the diseased person

Treatment

Till date no treatment procedure has been discovered for AIDS.Researchers are still going for the breakthrough for this disease.But there are some medication procedures which are followed and it is known as antiretroviral therapy or ART.This technique aims to lower the level of HIV viral load in the patient’s blood with the motive that the diseased cannot pass on the virus to the respective partner through sexual contact.The viral load with this technique attains an undetectable level.Every diagnosed person should immediately start with the therapy to avoid the unnecessary impact of this life threatening disease. There are multiple ART options that integrate multiple HIV medications into a single pill, and can be consumed only once a day.

Risk Factors

There can be various risk factors if diagnosed with HIV-AIDS. Following are some of them.

• If a person gets diagnosed with HIV ,he or she must get tested for the other sexually transmitted diseases as well, as there can be chances of acquiring the other forms along with this.

• HIV-positive patients must undergo ART immediately to lower the viral load in their blood and reduce the chances of transmitting the virus to other negative patients especially through sexual contact.

• Protection during sexual intercourse is a must (condoms) to avoid transmitting different sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, chlamydia, and HIV through genital fluids.

• Research says that Condoms are less effective in warding off Sexually transmitted diseases that can be transmitted through bruises or cuts on the skin.One such example is Human papillomavirus, Genital herpes, and Syphilis.

Social Scenario

India is working hard to eliminate the life threatening disorder HIV/AIDS that is posing some serious health issue challenges.Lot of strategies have been built up by the Government and even WHO to reduce the level of the disease by conducting several social awareness programmes and sex-education classes in rural and urban areas. But still it's far away from saying “AIDS FREE INDIA” as India still has 2.5 million people approximately, between 15-49 age range, and expected to be living with HIV/AIDS, the third largest in the world.According to World Health organisation HIV is still a major globalised public health issue,with an estimated claim of 40 million lives so far.In 2021, around 6 lakh people died from HIV-related diseases and, around 1.5 million people have been diagnosed with HIV.

Conclusion

Worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemics have aggravated to a greater extent and have impacted the socio-economic system of the nation. The countries that have been facing the dark consequences of these dreadful diseases are mostly third World countries and have already witnessed several obstacles like highway development issues, famine, war and inefficient administration and illiteracy.Poverty, illiteracy and other health awareness programs have already stipulated various awareness programmes,whereas the HIV/AIDS epidemic is causing unexpected demolition of the country.AIDS Mitigation policies and programs need to be framed up on strict note and executed properly especially, in the rural sector to ease the agony of the entire population and sufferers.

FAQs

Q1. Is HIV-AIDS a contaminated disease?

Ans. Yes, HIV-AIDS is a contagious disease and spreads specifically through sexual contact with multiple partners or by sharing used drug needles or any other unsterilized surgical equipment with someone who has HIV. It doesn't get spread through any aerosol droplets or sputum.

Q2. What prevention steps must we adopt to get rid of AIDS?

Ans. Following is the most important preventative steps to avoid AIDS −

• Avoiding sexual intercourse with multiple partners.

• Using protection like latex condoms while having sexual intercourse.

• Avoid using used blades or needles to prevent contamination.

Q3. How HIV originated?

Ans. The viral strains HIV-1 and HIV-2 are believed to have originated amongst the non-human primates in West-central Africa and have been transferred to humans by a process called zoonosis(transfer of any viral load from animals to humans)around the 20th century.