How HIV/AIDS Affects Our Bodies

 

Our body is made up of cells and in each cell is a code of instructions that the cell must follow in order to function effectively. This code is called DNA. One of the instructions of DNA is for cells to continuously make copies of themselves as their life expectancy is short.  In our bodies defense system we have white blood cells that protect us by destroying any infecting foreign viruses. They are essential to our immunity and keep us in good health. The HIV virus is particularly difficult to destroy as it infects the white blood cells and causes a change in their DNA instructing them to make copies of the virus. This stage of infection is called the incubation stage and can last between 7-10 years.

 

White blood cells identify other white blood cells infected by the virus as foreign to the body and in attempt to destroy the HIV virus destroy the white blood cells also. If infected white blood cells are not destroyed by other white blood cells, eventually the viruses within them become so many that the cell is destroyed from within and the many copies of the HIV virus are released and free to infect other white blood cells. As the process repeats the number of white blood cells falls dramatically and as a result so does the strength of the host’s immune system. At this stage the person is said to have contracted AIDS.

 

A host who has contracted AIDS is then prone to other infections, we call these opportunistic infections. These infections have a more dramatic and lasting effect on the infected person as their immune system is too weak to create a strong defense. The host becomes weaker and weaker and it is this weak immunity and inability to recover that causes the death of the infected person.

 

AIDS is diagnosed when a patient’s CD4 white blood cell count is below: 200

 

There is no current cure for HIV/AIDS but there is medication to prevent the development of AIDS and so to increase life expectancy of those infected with the HIV virus.

 

How HIV/AIDS is Contracted

 

The HIV virus is not an air born virus meaning it cannot be spread through the air. It is spread through contact of bodily fluids during sex and through blood. It can pass through unsterile needles for example in blood transfusions, drug injection, tattoos, reusing cotton buds, through saliva should the mouth have an open wound, from mother to unborn child through the placenta during pregnancy, during childbirth or breast feeding.

 

The Main Symptoms of HIV                                                                        

 

Weight loss, persistent coughing, regular fevers and sweats,  long lasting diarrhea, pneumonia, memory loss, depression, inexplicable fatigue, blemishes on tongue, mouth and throat, dark blotches on or under skin inside the mouth, nose, eyelids.