HIV Infection Stages
HIV infection can be transmitted through few ways such as sexual contact and blood transfusion. Once a person gets infected, he will normally interact with three stages of infection which are known as acute, chronic (the latent or asymptomatic) and finally AIDS (1). When there is no treatment, HIV infection will progress from one stage to another and weaken the immune system during this process until it finally reaches AIDS. However, HIV medicines and antiretroviral therapy (ART) can stop HIV from advancing to AIDS (1). This essay presents the three stages of HIV infection in a way which shows when each stage begins and how it affects the body. The first stage is the acute HIV infection which begins within two to four …show more content…
This stage happens when the immune system is greatly damaged that it cannot fight off opportunistic infections (2). Opportunistic infections are infections or cancers that occur more often and serious in people with weak immune systems than in people with healthy immune systems because CD4 cells count is much lower in weak immune systems (1). An infected person is considered to have AIDS in two ways. First, when the number of CD4 cells is lower than 200 cubic millimeter of blood (1). Second, when he develops one or more opportunistic infection such as Tuberculosis (TB) and Pneumonia (1). Unfortunately, the life expectancy for a person with AIDS without treatment is about three years, but if he has a severe opportunistic illness, it will decrease to one year (1). In 2015, there were 36.7 million people infected with HIV and 1.1 million of them died from AIDS, according to UNAIDS …show more content…
The acute stage has flu-like symptoms, and it is the stage when the virus starts to produce itself. The chronic stage almost always doesn’t show any symptoms, and the virus is still active and reproduces. Finally, AIDS occurs when the chronic HIV infection advances because of the huge damage of the immune system which makes the infected person vulnerable to opportunistic infections. In my Opinion, undergoing ART during the chronic stage is essential treatment because after taking ART, an infected person will likely never advance to
HIV infection can be transmitted through few ways such as sexual contact and blood transfusion. Once a person gets infected, he will normally interact with three stages of infection which are known as acute, chronic (the latent or asymptomatic) and finally AIDS (1). When there is no treatment, HIV infection will progress from one stage to another and weaken the immune system during this process until it finally reaches AIDS. However, HIV medicines and antiretroviral therapy (ART) can stop HIV from advancing to AIDS (1). This essay presents the three stages of HIV infection in a way which shows when each stage begins and how it affects the body. The first stage is the acute HIV infection which begins within two to four …show more content…
This stage happens when the immune system is greatly damaged that it cannot fight off opportunistic infections (2). Opportunistic infections are infections or cancers that occur more often and serious in people with weak immune systems than in people with healthy immune systems because CD4 cells count is much lower in weak immune systems (1). An infected person is considered to have AIDS in two ways. First, when the number of CD4 cells is lower than 200 cubic millimeter of blood (1). Second, when he develops one or more opportunistic infection such as Tuberculosis (TB) and Pneumonia (1). Unfortunately, the life expectancy for a person with AIDS without treatment is about three years, but if he has a severe opportunistic illness, it will decrease to one year (1). In 2015, there were 36.7 million people infected with HIV and 1.1 million of them died from AIDS, according to UNAIDS …show more content…
The acute stage has flu-like symptoms, and it is the stage when the virus starts to produce itself. The chronic stage almost always doesn’t show any symptoms, and the virus is still active and reproduces. Finally, AIDS occurs when the chronic HIV infection advances because of the huge damage of the immune system which makes the infected person vulnerable to opportunistic infections. In my Opinion, undergoing ART during the chronic stage is essential treatment because after taking ART, an infected person will likely never advance to