Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Causes, Symptoms, Modes of Transmission, Demographics, and Health Statistics

Kirton, C. (2007, April 2007). Nurses at the Forefront of a Pandemic: HIV/AIDS Nurses. National Student Nurse’s

When infected by HIV in the early stages the immune system tries fight against the virus which is the cause of the symptoms sufferers start to experience. Once these symptoms begin to leave your body generally suffers do not experience any other symptoms afterwards. However due to the damage done to the immune system after years of suffering from the disease it is likely to experience weight loss, hot sweats, skin issues and serious illnesses. It is vital that when testing for HIV the 5 C’s are followed which have been placed by the world health organisation which are as

Some people live with it for years before being diagnosed and some experience symptoms within a few weeks. Symptoms are different for everyone but can include the usual flu-like symptoms which are “fever, headaches, tiredness, and enlarged lymph glands,” (HIV Facts, n.d.). These are some of the symptoms I had.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a viral infection that can be life-threatening and is a lifelong disease. HIV attacks the body and weakens the immune system. HIV stays in the body for life and some of the symptoms are diarrhea, headache, fever, night sweats, and flu-like symptoms.

HIV/AIDS is acquired when there is an unprotected sexual intercourse, exposure to infected blood or body fluids, sharing of needles or syringes with an infected person and from mother to child through breast feeding or vaginal birth. The most prevalent places are the urban cites in the U.S. As discussed earlier, the population at risk for the infection are gay and bisexuals, IV drug users and heterosexuals. Within the first two weeks of acquiring HIV infection, the infected person develops fever usually 100.4degrees, fatigue, sore throat, headache, muscle and joint pains. This normally resolves itself without any intervention. Some people might also develop a digestive and respiratory problem such as nausea &vomiting and dry cough. If untreated, it can result in low TCD4 lymphocyte count below 200 resulting in AIDS. Statistically, from the national level, the most prevalent states in the U.S in

With such badly compromised immune systems people with AIDS get a growing number of serious sicknesses, they are called opportunistic diseases. With no treatment, the AIDS patients predictably survive about three years. The most usual Symptoms of AIDS are fever, chills, swollen, sweats, lymph glands, weight loss, and weakness. The diagnosis of AIDS is when the CD4 cell counts drops below 200 cells/mm or if they acquire certain opportunistic diseases. Being infected with the HIV can increase the viral load in

Chapter 15 of the book discusses about AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. This is an epidemic and is taken into account as the deadliest epidemic in human history since it first appeared in 1981 and there were several theories attributed to its existence

Thesis: HIV/AIDS has proven itself to be one of the most significant health issues present in the world today, the most successful manner of addressing HIV/AIDS is The Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

15. Women and HIV related MDGs, its target and impact of HIV to achieve the target

Primary HIV infection is the first stage and only lasts for a few weeks. Flu-like illnesses may be present during this stage. The second stage is known as clinically asymptomatic stage and typically lasts for an average of ten years. Although major symptoms might not exist during this stage, the HIV-positive person may experience swollen glands. Symptomatic HIV infection is the third stage. As the immune system continues to fail, symptoms surface and become miniscule at first then later leading to more prevalent symptoms. This third stage is generally caused by illnesses, involving cancers and infections, which the immune system would normally fight off but is not able to because the immune system is too weak. Finally, AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, develops and is the final stage of HIV. A person is diagnosed with AIDS when they show the symptom called an opportunistic infection. This is when infections take advantage of the weakened immune system. HIV leads into life threatening AIDS and causes the infected individual to feel escalating amounts of pain such as neurotic pain, tremendous headaches, gastrointestinal pain, chest pain, and even emotional pain such as depression. This pain can be intense enough to cease the individual from living a productively normal life. HIV and AIDS can strike anyone at any point in their life and should be taken seriously.

As the disease becomes more severe and the virus persistently destroys the immune system, this is known as early HIV infection. With the virus becoming more intense symptoms may vary from fatigue, once again swollen lymph nodes, diarrhea, weight loss, fever, oral yeast infection, and even shingles. With no treatment of the HIV infection, this virus will become AIDS within ten years. With AIDS present the immune system has been extremely damaged and weakened, like those common illnesses such as the flu would be extremely more dangerous because the immune system is so broken down. The sign and symptoms of this final phase of HIV is soaking night sweats, persistent fever, bad diarrhea, rash or bumps, odd white spots or uncomfortable ulcers on the tongue or even around the mouth, weight loss, and random persistent fatigue.

Advanced HIV related symptoms - Moderate anaemia, thrush/derma77s, persistent generalised lymphadenopathy (PGL), diarrhoea, weight loss, recurring fever, Kaposis sarcoma

What is a communicable disease? A communicable disease is carried by microorganisms and transmitted through people, animals, surfaces, foods, or air. Therefore, communicable diseases rely on fluid exchange, contaminated substances, or close contact to travel from an infected carrier to a healthy individual. The disease might need a blood exchange via an injection, float along a sneeze in a movie theater, or transmitted through childbirth. Hence, a human-to-human communicable disease could be passed through blood, mucus, uterine fluid, breast milk, semen, saliva, or breath. Examples of communicable diseases include herpes, malaria, mumps, HIV/AIDS, influenza, chicken pox, ringworm, and whooping cough. Governmental health agencies spend a great deal of time and money studying the risk or spread of various contagious diseases in order to identify outbreaks, prevent reoccurrences, or develop treatments. They compile statistics such as incidence, which measures how many new cases are diagnosed per year, and prevalence, which identifies how many cases exist at any one time. According to Anderson (2011), top 10 communicable diseases exist: Common Cold, Gastroenteritis, Strep throat, Pink Eye, Fifth Disease, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis, Whooping Cough, Rotavirus, and HIV/AIDS. With its mysterious origin and mutation rates, HIV/AIDS warrants a closer analysis.

HIV is global pandemic stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, weakens the immune system by destroying the important cells in our body that fights against disease and infection. Our immune system is able to clear out most of the viruses from our body, but once you have HIV , you have it for lifelong. HIV can hide in our body cells for long time and it can attack the T cells and CD4 cells, a key part of our immune system to fight infections and diseases. Overtime, the HIV may attack so many of CD4 cells and our body is no more able to fight against infections. When this happens, HIV can lead to AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection. HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact, injection or drug use, pregnancy, breast feeding, occupational exposure, and rarely through blood transfusion and organ

Over the years, communicable diseases have created a host of serious problems. These diseases cause physical, emotional, and even financial problems in our societies today. A communicable disease refers to a sickness that passed through the transmission of infectious illnesses. People, food, animals or water can pass many infections from humans to humans or animals to humans. Humans can pass infectious diseases to each other from touching or exchanging body fluids. In 1981, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) marked the official start of the HIV epidemic which became one of the world’s most deadly communicable diseases (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2015). The widespread of the human immunodeficiency virus has affected approximately 1.2