AIDS Disease Facts

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the fourth stage of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) disease. HIV is a virus that causes the immune system to weaken over time by targeting lymphocytes, cells that participate in the body's immune response. When the body loses the ability to fight off infection on its own (the loss of a capacity called cell-mediated immunity), AIDS is diagnosed in HIV-positive people.

Symptomatic HIV

• Before AIDS develops, HIV-disease enters its third stage, symptomatic. During this stage, which lasts between one and three years, a chronic flu-like illness develops. Other symptoms include, according to HIV-Symptoms.info: night sweats, serious weight loss, fungal infections and skin and breathing troubles.

AIDS Diagnosis

• AIDS is diagnosed when cell-mediated immunity is lost. According to the CDC, this happens when CD4 cell count (a type of cell targeted by HIV) drops below 200 per cubic milliliter of blood or when they account for 14 percent or fewer of all lymphocytes.

AIDS Overview

• The damage done to the immune system by HIV leads to four different types of conditions in fourth-stage HIV-disease. These include opportunistic infections, wasting, cancers and neurological problems.

OIs

• Opportunistic infections (OIs) are infections which do not cause disease in people with healthy immune systems or which cause worse symptoms in people with compromised immune systems. Common OIs include herpesviruses (oral and genital herpes shingles, shingles and cytomegalovirus, which can lead to blindness), toxoplasmosis (a parasitic brain illness), Pneumocystis pneumonia and thrush, an oral cancer.

Wasting, Cancers and Neurological Conditions

• Wasting begins in symptomatic HIV and leads to severe weight loss, including the loss of muscle mass. This weight loss is caused both directly by the effects of HIV-disease and by side effects (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetitie) of some drugs used in the treatment of HIV-disease.

  Cancers found in AIDS include Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer that leads to purple lesions and lymphomas, cancers of lymphocytes.

  The most significant neurological condition associated with AIDS is AIDS dementia complex (ADC). According to HIV InSite, ADC can lead to problems with thinking, motor skills and behavior.

Treatment

• The primary treatment for HIV-disease is antiretroviral drugs. These are generally taken in combination of three or more in a multi-drug therapy called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). These drugs manage HIV at several different points as it invades and infects host cells. Even in cases of very effective treatment, there is no cure for HIV or AIDS.

  The symptoms of conditions found during AIDS may respond to antiretroviral therapy or may need to be targeted more directly, such as by antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal agents, cancer treatments, or diet and exercise as well as relief from nausea and other symptoms for wasting. Every condition will need to be evaluated for appropriate treatment.