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AIDS Characteristics & Treatment

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AIDS, is the last stage of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV. HIV attacks the immune system, killing CD4 or T white blood cells. The immune system cannot fight disease without those cells. It takes years for someone with HIV to reach the AIDS stage. By 2007, around 1.1 million people in the United States were living with HIV or AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  1. Risks

    • Those at the highest risk of HIV and AIDS are people who had blood transfusions prior to 1985, homosexual men, those who share needles, anyone who has sex with an HIV or AIDS infected person and babies born to mothers who have HIV.

    Symptoms

    • The main symptoms of AIDS are those of other diseases, infections and illnesses because the immune system is not able to fight them. Some examples are pneumonia, meningitis, Kaposi's sarcoma and certain lymphomas.

    Testing

    • You cannot know for certain that you have HIV or AIDS without getting tested. There is a blood test for HIV that your doctor can order.

    Treatment

    • There are a variety of prescription drugs, such as Atripla and Truvada, that people infected with HIV can take to help keep them from getting sicker. Atripla and Truvada block reverse transcriptase, which HIV needs in order to replicate. Once a person has AIDS, the resulting diseases, cancers and infections are treated with available drugs and methods.

    Prevention

    • Abstinence, monogomy, and protected sex are methods to prevent the spread of HIV. Drug users should never share needles, and women with HIV should not get pregnant or inform their doctors if they are.

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