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AIDS: Important guide for this life threatening condition.

AIDS: Important guide for this life threatening condition.

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What is AIDS?

HIV-positive individuals have the potential to acquire AIDS. It is HIV’s most advanced stage. However, merely having HIV does not guarantee that a person will get AIDS. CD4 cells die due to HIV. A healthy adult’s CD4 count typically ranges from 500 to 1,600 cells per cubic millimetre. AIDS will be declared in an HIV patient whose CD4 level is less than 200 cells per cubic millimetre.

A person with HIV may potentially be identified as having AIDS if they experience an opportunistic infection or malignancy that is uncommon in persons without HIV.

Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia is an example of an opportunistic illness that only affects people who are extremely immunocompromised, such as those with advanced HIV infection (AIDS).

If left untreated, HIV can develop into AIDS in ten years. Currently, there is no therapy for AIDS, and the life expectancy upon diagnosis is just approximately three years. dependable source If the individual contracts a serious opportunistic sickness, this could be cut short. However, antiretroviral medication therapy can stop the onset of AIDS.

If AIDS does arise, it indicates that the immune system is seriously damaged, or weak to the point where it can no longer effectively fight off most infections and diseases.

As a result, they are more susceptible to a variety of diseases, such as:

  • pneumonia
  • tuberculosis
  • a fungal infection of the mouth or throat known as oral thrush
  • the herpes virus cytomegalovirus (CMV)
  • A fungus in the brain causes cryptococcal meningitis.
  • Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic brain disease.
  • A disorder brought on by an intestinal parasite called cryptosporidiosis
  • malignancy, such as lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma (KS)

It is not a direct consequence of the condition itself that untreated AIDS is associated with a shorter life expectancy. Instead, it’s a result of the illnesses and problems that come with having an immune system that has been compromised by AIDS.

Where did HIV come from?

A certain chimpanzee species in Central Africa is where humans first contracted HIV. According to studies, the HIV virus may have spread from chimpanzees to humans as early as the late 1800s.

Simian immunodeficiency virus is the name of the virus that affects chimpanzees. The likelihood is that HIV was spread to people when they killed these chimpanzees for food and came into touch with their diseased blood.

HIV progressively expanded over Africa over many years, then to other regions of the world. In the United States, the virus has been around since at least the mid- to late 1970s.

Symptoms of HIV

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is referred to. HIV, which has generally gone untreated for many years, weakens the immune system in people with this condition. The likelihood of developing AIDS is reduced if HIV is identified and treated with antiretroviral medication at an early stage.

When HIV is discovered too late or when a person knows they have HIV but doesn’t take their antiretroviral medicine regularly, they run the risk of developing AIDS. If they have an HIV strain that is resistant to (or does not react to) antiretroviral therapy, they may also go on to develop AIDS.

People with HIV may experience an earlier onset of AIDS without effective and continuous therapy. By then, the immune system has suffered significant damage and struggles to mount a defence against illness and infection.

Antiretroviral medication allows a person to retain a chronic HIV diagnosis without progressing to AIDS for many years.

Among the signs of AIDS are:

  • persistent fever
  • chronically enlarged lymph nodes, particularly in the groyne, neck, and armpits
  • persistent tiredness
  • morning sweats
  • black spots inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids or under the skin.
  • Anus lumps, lesions, or rashes of the skin, sores, spots, or lesions of the lips and tongue; genital lesions,
  • Chronic or recurring diarrhoea
  • quick loss of weight
  • neurological issues include memory loss, confusion, and difficulty focusing
  • both tension and despair

Antiretroviral therapy manages the infection and typically stops the development of AIDS. Treatment options exist for AIDS-related complications and other infections. The person’s specific needs must be taken into account when designing the treatment.

How is HIV transmitted?

HIV can be distributed in a variety of ways:

  • by having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person. It spreads primarily in this manner.
  • lending each other a needle.
  • by coming into contact with an HIV-positive person’s blood.
  • During pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, from mother to kid.

You CANNOT obtain HIV via kissing, sharing food or beverages, or using the same fork or spoon since saliva (spit) is not how HIV is communicated. Additionally, HIV cannot be transmitted through hugging, holding hands, coughing, or sneezing. And a toilet seat cannot transmit HIV to you.

HIV infection was once spread through blood transfusions. However, it is now completely safe to give or receive blood in medical facilities. In addition to testing donated blood for HIV and other illnesses, doctors, hospitals, and blood donation facilities never reuse needles.

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What are the symptoms and causes of Tuberculosis?

What are the symptoms and causes of Tuberculosis?

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A potentially dangerous infectious disease that mostly affects the lungs is tuberculosis (TB). People can contract tuberculosis from one another by coughing or sneezing small droplets of bacteria into the air.

Infections of tuberculosis, once uncommon in wealthy nations, started rising in 1985, in part due to the appearance of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV impairs the immune system, making it incapable of warding off TB pathogens. In the United States, tuberculosis started to decline once more in 1993 as a result of more effective control initiatives. But it still raises questions.

The majority of medications used to treat tuberculosis don’t work on many forms of the disease. For months, those with active tuberculosis must take a variety of drugs to treat the infection and prevent antibiotic resistance.

Different kinds of tuberculosis

You may also hear about several forms of TB, such as the most prevalent, pulmonary (lung) tuberculosis, in addition to active or inactive TB. But in addition to your lungs, the bacterium can also harm other parts of your body, leading to extrapulmonary tuberculosis (or TB outside of the lung). Additionally, systemic miliary TB, which can affect the entire body and result in:

  • Meningitis is a brain inflammation.
  • High quantities of white blood cells in your urine are referred to as sterile pyuria.
  • Spinal tuberculosis, often known as Pott’s disease or TB spondylitis.
  • an adrenal gland disorder called Addison’s disease.
  • The liver infection hepatitis.
  • Neck lymphadenitis, often known as scrofula or TB lymphadenitis.

Who is most at risk?

The majority of persons with tuberculosis are in their prime working years. All age groups, though, are in danger. In low- and middle-income nations, there are more than 80% of cases and fatalities.

Active TB is 18 times more likely to develop in HIV-positive people. Additionally, people with other immune-system compromising illnesses are more likely to have active TB. Undernourished individuals are three times as vulnerable. In 2021, there were 2.2 million new TB cases worldwide that could be linked to malnutrition.

Smoking and problematic alcohol use both raise the risk of TB. The causes of 0.74 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide in 2021 were related to alcohol use disorders, while 0.63 million were related to smoking.

Symptoms of tuberculosis?

The majority of persons harbouring TB germs in their systems don’t develop TB disease. They actually still have a latent TB infection. If you have latent tuberculosis, you:

  • had no symptoms
  • cannot transmit TB to others
  • In the future, if your immune system deteriorates due to another factor, you could become ill with active TB illness.
  • Must take medication to avoid contracting active TB disease in the future

The TB bacteria are active if you have TB disease, which means they are growing (multiplying) inside of your body and making you ill. You can distribute the TB germs to other individuals if the disease is developing in your lungs or throat. TB disease can strike weeks to years after you’ve contracted the infection.

Your TB symptoms will depend on where the disease is spreading in your body.

Typical general signs include:

  • the flu with a fever
  • sweats at night (heavy sweating during sleep)
  • shedding pounds without trying
  • reduced appetite
  • weakness or exhaustion

Your lungs’ TB illness symptoms could include the following:

  • Cough that persists for more than three weeks
  • coughing up sputum or blood (a thick mucus from the lungs)
  • chest pain

What causes tuberculosis?

TB is brought on by a bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There are numerous TB strains, some of which have developed drug resistance.

Airborne droplets that are infected with the TB bacteria can spread the disease. Anyone around can breathe in these droplets once they are in the air. TB patients can spread the germs by:

  • sneezing
  • coughing
  • speaking
  • singing

Even if they have contracted the germs, people with healthy immune systems may not show signs of TB. Latent or dormant TB infection is what this is. Latent TB affects about one-fourth of all people on the planet.

Although latent TB is not contagious, it can eventually develop into an active illness. You can get sick from active TB disease and spread it to other people as well.

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