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Written by Kimberly Dayton
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AIDS is not a single disease, but a syndrome -- a set of conditions that tend to occur together and include both the signs detected by a doctor, and the symptoms reported by a patient. Scientists the world over have identified the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, as the cause of AIDS.
When HIV infects the human immune system, it attacks CD4 T helper lymphocytes -- the white blood cells that keep us healthy by digesting the dangerous bacteria and fungi it finds in our bodies. CD4s travel everywhere the blood goes, catching and killing the germs that cause infections. When the HIV enters the body, it latches onto the surfaces of CD4 cells and kills them, using their organic compounds to feed it and reproduce. As HIV spreads, the CD4 count falls. Surviving CD4 cells do continue to reproduce, but because HIV has invaded them, they also make more copies of the virus. Thus, white blood cells infected by HIV effectively destroy themselves. |
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Written by Kimberly Dayton
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Living with HIV is complicated. Taking anti-retrovirals is not enough to stay healthy, because medication does not cure the disease; it only slows its progression. Although most recent data indicate that the state-of-the-art treatment, Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment or HAART, can lengthen the lifespan of HIV-infected people by anywhere between 4 and 12 years, and reduce the death rate by 80%, the side effects of HAART are considerable, and up to half of HIV-infected people who begin HAART do not benefit from it because they don't take their medications as instructed, or they quit at the wrong times.
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Written by Kimberly Dayton
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HIV infections cannot be cured. The virus will never leave the body once it has invaded. However, HIV symptoms can be treated with medicine that slows down the reproduction of the virus inside the blood stream. As soon as a person is infected with HIV, his immune system begins producing antibodies. The two most common types of HIV test -- "rapid test" and home test -- scan the bloodstream for evidence of these antibodies. If they are present, the person is infected. The US government has approved several highly effective HIV tests with accuracy rates of over 99.9 percent. |
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