The Medical Management for a Patient Diagnosed With AIDS

A patient diagnosed with AIDS has a lifelong condition that will go through various phases. Healthcare professionals and patients must take an active role in managing the disease. Although there is no evidence that current therapies can cure a patient infected with HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, treatment does provide limited success in controlling the virus while the therapy is administered. A key factor in the successful treatments of AIDS is that patients follow the prescribed treatment correctly.

Education

• Education is the first step in managing AIDS patients.

  Patients should be given practical and accurate information on their disease and explained how their treatment works. For instance, a major problem for doctors treating AIDS is the developing of resistance to antiviral treatment. This occurs especially when patients do not take their medications at the correct time. If the correct doses are not given at the right time, some viral particles will remain in the patient's body, which will allow the virus to develop a resistance to the drugs. Patients who understand how their treatment works are more likely to follow it correctly.

Maintaining General Health

• The main effect of AIDS is reducing the patient's ability to respond to infections and other illnesses. Therefore, management of AIDS patients should include regular checkups and taking special care of their general health and nutrition. How regular these checkups are will depend on the symptoms and the stage of the disease. If the patient is coping well, twice a year could be sufficient for patients. But those people who have begun to experience symptoms and are receiving antiviral treatments require more frequent visits.

Stages of AIDS

• The care an AIDS patient needs will depend on the stage of the disease he is going through. The first stage occurs around two weeks after infection and includes flu-like symptoms that generally disappear in a matter of weeks. The symptoms are often serious enough for patients to visit a doctor, but according to Avert, an international AIDS charity, HIV diagnosis at this stage is frequently missed.

  The second stage is chronic asymptomatic infection, which can last for years without symptoms. At this stage doctors must decide when antiviral treatment should begin.

  The third stage is when the body's immune system is compromised and severe symptoms begin, such as unusual infections, weight loss, dementia and various forms of cancer. At this stage healthcare professionals try to manage the infections and cancers that appear. Unless HIV is slowed down the patient's health will continue to worsen.

Antiretroviral Treatment

• The main treatment for AIDS is the use of antiretroviral drugs. These are used to prevent the damage caused by HIV and to delay the symptomatic stage of the disease. A combination of at least three antiretroviral drugs is used to stall the growth of the virus and to delay the resistance of the virus to treatment. When to start antiretroviral treatment will be determined by existing medical conditions like hepatitis, TB or pregnancy, the patient's weight measurement and an assessment of her readiness for therapy. The type of antiretroviral drug that will be used will inform what tests need to be done. For instance, if doctors are considering AZT, a heamoglobin test should be taken.

Psychological Help

• Managing an AIDS patient must also include the provision of counseling on how to deal with the anxiety, depression and stigma that often go along with having the disease.

Disease Prevention

• Opportunistic diseases that are more likely to attack AIDS patients must be prevented by avoiding exposure, effective monitoring and prophylactic medications. Prevention also includes avoiding other getting infected by HIV carriers. According to the World Health Organization, standard precautions must be put into place, like condoms, blood and injection safety as well as post-exposure prophylaxis.