HIV-Aids – Latest Information

The purpose of this write-up is to give up-to-date report on HIV/AIDS and of course HIV/AIDS LATEST report since it is very popular and known all over the world as one of the major cause of death all over the world and perhaps the greatest threat to mankind which has kept scientist at work for decades and still no proved scientific cure yet. But unfortunately, according to UK Health Protection Agency, it is estimated that up to a quarter of all people with HIV are unaware that they are infected.

If you have ever had sex with someone whose HIV status was not known from blood test, you might have contracted HIV without realizing it – people that look very healthy may have HIV without knowing it.

Though HIV and AIDS are used interchangeably, it will be nice to state the difference between the two. HIV- means, Human Immunodeficiency Virus while AIDS means, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS is as a result of continual attack on the body’s immune system by HIV.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus and they enter the body through direct contact with blood or other body fluids and when it enters the body, it weakens the body immune system (it attacks or kills the T Lymphocytes and CD4 cells which provides body protection against different kinds of incoming infections) making it weak to fight against disease causing agents.

When the immune system becomes highly weak to fight back any infection in the body, that means that the patient can suffer great illness due to minor infection and thus may result to death (from AIDS related illnesses) – at this stage (according HIV/AIDS LATEST report), when the body immune system is very weak, the patient is said to be suffering from AIDS. So, AIDS is said to be an opportunistic infection (An opportunistic infection is an infection that would not normally affect an otherwise healthy person. Oftentimes, it’s these infections that are the cause of illness or death in HIV-positive individuals – not the virus itself). But according to HIV/AIDS Latest report from Centers for Disease Control and prevention, a CD4 cell count below 200 means that the person is having AIDS. When HIV enters the body, it infects T cells and takes over the activities of these white blood cells so that the virus can replicate. Eventually, HIV infection compromises the entire immune system and causes AIDS.

THE STAGES:

1. The presence of the virus in the blood system marks the first stage of the infection. And at this very stage the virus is in undetectable limits, but there is formation of different antibodies in the body.

2. Seroconversion is the second stage, and this is stage where there are lots of antibodies productions in the body to fight the HIV – Flu like symptoms may occur at this stage.

3. The third stage is a stage where there is no sign of infection, and the patient may not know about the infection at all, unless tested- this can last for several years.

4. At this stage the CD4 cell count drops below 200 – a stage where the body immune system is totally weak and this may result to infections and it is at this stage that the infection is referred to as AIDS according to HIV/AIDS LATEST report.

Source by Stan Moore