Introduction
HIV is a lentivirus (belongs to the retrovirus family) that causes AIDS, a medical condition in man characterized by low immunity levels that gives rise to opportunistic diseases and various forms of cancer. The HIV virus enters the body when infected fluids enter the human blood circulatory system and this could be through blood, semen, or vaginal fluid. The main ways through which HIV enters the body are unprotected sex, contaminated needles used for intravenous purposes, breast milk, and infection from an infected mother to the baby during pregnancy, or birth (Coovadia, 290).
The HIV virus cannot survive on its own, or outside the human body, therefore, a person cannot be infected with it through casual contact such as kissing, handshakes, or sharing drinks with an infected person. Early signs of the infection include fever, rashes on the skin and in the mouth, swollen lymph nodes, muscular pains and persistent headache. These symptoms appear in different stages of infection, the first of which may appear a few days or weeks after infection. The symptoms may disappear for a long time and if the infected person does not use appropriate drugs, the virus continues to develop in the body, attacking the immune system, and more symptoms appear.
The virus is thought to have come from primates in the sub-Saharan Africa and contracted by humans in the early 20th century. They deduced that the chimpanzee form of the HIV, known as the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), moved from the primates, entered the humans and mutated into the HIV (Kurth and Norley, 33). The contact might have occurred when humans hunted the primates for food and their blood came into contact with that of man. The virus has continued to spread all over the world, the first case of which was identified in 1981.
Disease information
HIV weakens the body’s immune system by attacking the essential cells such as the helper T cells (in particular the CD4+ cells), macrophages, and dendritic cell, all of which form the human body’s immune system (Cunningham et al, 528). After attacking the immune system, the body registers low CD4+ cells and this undergoes various main ways. First, the HIV virus kills infected cells either by itself or and it also through the use of Cytotoxic T cells(or the CD8+ cells) that can identify infected cells. When the CD4+ cells fall by a significant proportion, the body loses its immunity and the body becomes increasingly more at risk to opportunistic infections. Hence, the spread of the HIV virus can be controlled by suppressing the production of CD8+ cells (Cunningham et al, 528). Suppression of the release of the CD8+ cells has been associated with slower spread of HIV in the human body and an improved prognosis, however, it does not remove the virus from the body (Moore, 50).
Treatment information
Even though a treatment option that eliminates the HIV virus has not been found, there are several methods that have been found to increase the lifespan of persons living with the virus by more than 30 years. The first method is retroviral drug treatment using antiretroviral drugs. Antiretroviral drugs are tablets that are used to treat retroviral infections, majorly HIV and AIDS. These drugs are normally taken in combination to improve their effectiveness, a tactic is referred to as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). Due to the intricacy of selecting a combination and following it strictly and the severity of the side effects, health practitioners stress on the importance of the therapy choices, and propose evaluating the risks and potential benefits to patients (Weiss, 1275). Antiretroviral drugs have several side effects which vary from person to person and include birth defects, increase in weight, heart disease risks, and insulin resistance.
A second treatment option is proper nutrition. A healthy diet is imperative for a HIV patient as it provides the body with nutrients required to improve the body’s immune system and reverses the harm done by the virus on immune cells. Patients are advised to increase the intake of high calorie and high-protein foods to maintain body weight, take multivitamins and avoid fad diets. Above all, patients should healthy and avoid high cholesterol foods, consume low fat diets, and eat foods rich in omega-3 fats. Healthy eating is also important for patients since a HAART therapy can increase the chances of contracting a heart disease (Saah et al, 2110).
Conclusion
Through this research, I gained a lot of useful information on the HIV infection. First, I learnt that HIV infection does not necessarily imply that a person is suffering from AIDS and such a person may live for many years without exhibiting the symptoms of the infection. Secondly, a person infected with the virus can still live to full potential when he observes the required diet and follows the HAART therapy strictly. HIV patients must continually use the methods outlined above to reduce the occurrence of opportunistic infections, and to stay healthy and strong.
Works Cited
Coovadia, Harry. Antiretroviral agents—how best to protect infants from HIV and save their mothers from AIDS. N. Engl. J. Med., 351 (3): 2004. 289–292.
Cunningham, Anthony L., et al. Manipulation of dendritic cell function by viruses. Current opinion in microbiology, 13 (4): 2010. 524–529.
Kurth, Reinhard. and Norley, Stephen. Why don’t the natural hosts of SIV develop simian AIDS? J. NIH Res., 8: 1996. 33–37.
Moore, John P. Coreceptors: implications for HIV pathogenesis and therapy. Science, 276 (5309): 1997. 51–52,
Saah, Alfred et al. Association of HLA profiles with early plasma viral load, CD4+ cell count and rate of progression to AIDS following acute HIV-1 infection. AIDS, Volume 12, Issue 16,1998. 2107-2113.
Weiss, Robin A. How does HIV cause AIDS? Science, 260 (5112): 1993. 1273–9.