How Long Does Hiv Turn To Aids

How To Delay The Progression Of Hiv To Aids

How does HIV turn into AIDS? Is it possible to delay the process? Yes. There is currently no cure for AIDS, but the condition can be delayed to give the person a longer period of good health. Each class of the medications works differently to control the virus. It is advisable to use a combination of three drugs from two classes.

• Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors . This class includes drugs like efavirenz, etravirine and nevirapine. These drugs work by disabling a protein required by the HIV virus to reproduce.
• Nucleoside or nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors . This class of drugs includes abacavir. The drugs work by producing faulty protein that resemble those used by the HIV virus to reproduce.
• Protease inhibitors . This class includes atazanavir, darunavir, fosamprenavir and indinavir. These drugs inhibit protease, a protein required by the HIV virus to reproduce.
• Entry or fusion inhibitors. Entry inhibitors include enfuvirtide and maraviroc. These drugs delay the development of AIDS by inhibiting the entry of the HIV virus into the CD4 cells.
• Integrase inhibitors. Integrase inhibitors include raltegravir, elvitegravir and dolutegravir. Integrase is a protein used by the HIV virus to insert its DNA into the CD4 cells. These drugs function by inhibiting it.

When to Start Drugs

All people with HIV should be on antiretroviral drugs. However, drugs are particularly necessary in these situations:

Possible Side Effects

How Are Hiv And Aids Treated

Medicines can help people with HIV stay healthy. They can also prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS.

Health care providers prescribe a combination of different medicines for people with HIV and AIDS. They must be taken exactly as prescribed or they wonât work. These medicines:

• help keep the number of CD4 cells high
• reduce the viral load of HIV

Regular blood tests will check the number of CD4 cells in the body and the viral load.

If an HIV-positive personâs CD4 count gets low, doctors prescribe daily antibiotics. This prevents pneumocystis pneumonia, which happens in people with weakened immune systems.

When Should I Get Tested For Hiv

If you think you could have HIV, talk to your doctor or sexual health clinic about having a test. Not all people who have HIV will experience a seroconversion illness, so testing is important if you think you might be at risk. Some people at high risk need to be tested regularly.

You should get tested for HIV if:

• you have had unprotected sex with a partner whose HIV status is unknown or who has HIV but does not have a measurable amount of virus in their blood
• you have had unprotected sex with a person from a country that has high rates of HIV infection
• your sexual partner has recently travelled to a country that has high rates of HIV infection and may have had unprotected sex there
• you have had unprotected sex with a sex worker in Africa, Eastern Europe, South East Asia or Papua New Guinea
• you have ever shared injecting equipment

Early diagnosis is important and can improve the long-term course of the illness.

It is a good idea to talk to your doctor or sexual health clinic about other STIs at the same time.

Your information will be kept confidential unless there are major concerns for your safety or the safety of others. HIV is a notifiable disease, which means laboratory staff need to inform the government about new cases, but this information is also confidential.

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How Long Can You Live With Hiv

There are so many factors involved in providing an answer to a question like this. Of all of these, risk exposure levels, treatment adherence and lifestyle choices stand out. This is what we know:

• Five years after exposure, approximately 15% of HIV-positive people will have progressed to AIDS.
• Of those which progressed to AIDS, half would have died, by the end of those same five years.
• Of the remaining 85% of HIV-positive people, less than one third will have constitutional symptoms of infection.
• Less than two thirds of that 85% will be completely asymptomatic.
• The remaining in-betweeners are most likely to only have lymphadenopathy.
• 10 years after exposure, 50% will have progressed and deteriorated.
• 80% of those who deteriorate by this time will have succumbed.
• Of the 50% who have not progressed to AIDS, one half will have constitutional symptoms.
• One third will only have lymphadenopathy.
• The rest will be asymptomatic with CD4 cell counts ranging between 200-500.

Side Effects Of Hiv Treatment

People on current HIV treatments may experience mild side effects including:

• tiredness and fatigue
• skin rashes.

If you are on treatment, see your doctor every 3 to 6 months.

Regular blood tests are necessary to make sure your treatment is working and not causing serious side effects. It is recommended that you also get tested for STIs and talk to your doctor about your sexual health and overall wellbeing. Ensure you are having routine screening for cancers and keeping your vaccinations up to date.

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How Do I Know If I Have Hiv

The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. Testing is relatively simple. You can ask your health care provider for an HIV test. Many medical clinics, substance abuse programs, community health centers, and hospitals offer them too. You can also buy a home testing kit at a pharmacy or online.

To find an HIV testing location near you, use the HIV Services Locator.

HIV self-testing is also an option. Self-testing allows people to take an HIV test and find out their result in their own home or other private location. You can buy a self-test kit at a pharmacy or online. Some health departments or community-based organizations also provide self-test kits for free.

Read the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations fact sheet on the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, the only FDA-approved in-home HIV test.

The coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult for some people to access traditional places where HIV testing is provided. Self-testing allows people to get tested for HIV while still following stay-at-home orders and social distancing practices. Ask your local health department or HIV service organization if they offer self-testing kits.

Topics

How Can You Identify A Maculopapular Rash

A maculopapular rash looks like red bumps on a flat, red patch of skin. The reddish background area may not show up if your skin is dark. The rash is sometimes itchy, and it can last from two days to three weeks depending on the cause.

How quickly the rash appears and where it appears on your body will differ depending on the cause of the rash. It can spread anywhere on the body, from the face down to the limbs. In some cases, your doctor may ask where the rash started on the body. This can help the doctor narrow down potential causes.

Since maculopapular rashes are most common in infections and body immune responses, more than one symptom may also appear. These include:

• fever

• our bodys own systemic inflammation

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The Second Stage Of Hiv: The Asymptomatic Silent Phase

Following infection, there is a period of intense, unchecked viral replication. This happens 2 to 4 weeks after infection, and the replication activity lasts 1 to 2 weeks. Its after this process that the infected person recovers and is henceforth referred to as seropositive for HIV antibodies.

Though HIV replication is massive, most patients only experience moderate flu-like symptoms at this stage. Typically, the illness is sudden in onset and is characterised by fever, swelling of the lymph glands, a measles-like rash all over the body, ulcers in the mouth and sometimes on the genitalia.

Disease of the gastrointestinal tract is often involved, manifesting as nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Infected persons may also present inflammation of the pharynx and dysphasia, meningitis or encephalitis.

This acute HIV syndrome does not occur in all individuals infected with the virus, and many individuals who are HIV-positive, do not recall ever having experienced the illness. It has been estimated that approximately 5070% of individuals who are HIV-positive experience acute HIV illness. This syndrome is rarely seen in children.

Hiv And Aids Diagnosis

HIV tests check your blood or fluid from your mouth for antibodies that your body makes in response to the virus. You can take them at a doctorâs office, a community health center, a hospital, or at home.

When you have HIV, your doctor will keep an eye on how much of the virus is in your system. You might hear them call it your âviral load.â Two things will tell them if your infection has become AIDS:

• Your CD4 count. A person with a healthy immune system has 500 to 1,600 CD4 cells in a cubic millimeter of their blood. A person with AIDS has fewer than 200. This number is called your âCD4 count.â
• AIDS-defining infections. These are also called opportunistic infections. These generally happen in people who have a CD4 count below 200. Viruses, bacteria, or fungi that donât usually make healthy people sick can cause these infections in someone with HIV or AIDS.

How long it takes HIV to become AIDS is different for everyone. If you donât get treatment, it might take 10 to 15 years. With treatment, you may never have AIDS.

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How Do I Avoid Passing Hiv On To Someone Else

If you are infected with HIV, the best way to prevent spreading HIV infection to others is to:

• take your medication as prescribed there is a very low risk of passing on HIV if your own infection is under control
• use condoms and a water-based lubricant for anal and vaginal sex
• never share needles, syringes and other injecting equipment

If you have HIV infection, you are expected to notify anyone who is at risk of exposure from you:

• Tell people you have had sex or taken drugs with. Your doctor can help you decide who may be at risk and help you to contact them either personally or anonymously.
• Tell anyone you intend to have sex with about your HIV status . This is required by law in some states.

If you are pregnant, talk to your doctor about starting antiretroviral treatment to prevent the infection passing to the baby during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding. Read more about HIV and pregnancy.

Latency Causes A Break In Symptoms

After initial exposure and possible primary infection, HIV may transition into a stage called clinically latent infection. Its also referred to as asymptomatic HIV infection due to a noticeable lack of symptoms. This lack of symptoms includes possible chronic symptoms.

According to HIV.gov, latency in HIV infection can last for 10 or 15 years. This doesnt mean that HIV is gone, nor does it mean that the virus cant be transmitted to others. Clinically latent infection may progress to the third and final stage of HIV, also referred to as AIDS.

The risk for progression is higher if a person with HIV isnt receiving treatment, such as antiretroviral therapy. Its important to take prescribed medications during all stages of HIV even if there arent any noticeable symptoms. There are several medications used for HIV treatment.

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What Infections Are Associated With Hiv/aids

HIV and AIDS are conditions or states, that affect people who test positive for HIV, the viral organism. Both conditions, HIV and AIDS, may enable the exact same opportunistic infections to set in, but it will be more likely that an AIDS patient will present more intense symptoms than an HIV patient. Some of the AIDS-defining infections include:

• Kaposis sarcoma
• Meningitis/encephalitis due to cryptococcal or toxoplasmosis infection
• Pulmonary, miliary or extrapulmonary tuberculosis
• Dementia for no other reason
• Cancers such as lymphoma .

What Are Possible Complications

You may feel pain and itchiness due to the rash, but complications are unlikely to arise from the rash itself. What complications arise depend on the underlying cause. For example, you may develop life-threatening allergic reactions with certain drugs, which causes a skin reaction. Or you may develop headaches, a stiff neck, or back pain from an infection. As mentioned before, be sure to see a doctor who can look at all the symptoms youre having and make a diagnosis.

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Whats The Difference Between Hiv And Aids

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV and AIDS are not the same thing. And people with HIV do not always have AIDS.

HIV is the virus thats passed from person to person. Over time, HIV destroys an important kind of the cell in your immune system that helps protect you from infections. When you dont have enough of these CD4 cells, your body cant fight off infections the way it normally can.

AIDS is the disease caused by the damage that HIV does to your immune system. You have AIDS when you get dangerous infections or have a super low number of CD4 cells. AIDS is the most serious stage of HIV, and it leads to death over time.

Without treatment, it usually takes about 10 years for someone with HIV to develop AIDS. Treatment slows down the damage the virus causes and can help people stay healthy for several decades.

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What Are The Three Stages Of Hiv

HIV treatment can help in controlling the progression and spread of the virus – the most common of these treatments being antiretroviral therapy .

However, if someone experiences an asymptomatic HIV infection and does not regularly check in on their sexual health or decides not to receive the correct treatment, the virus can begin to progress into different stages and can continue to be transmitted to others. In fact, its estimated that around 40% of new HIV infections are transmitted by people who arent aware that they have the virus .

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The Asymptomatic Stage Of Hiv

Once seroconversion is over, most people feel fine and dont experience any symptoms. This is often called the asymptomatic stage and it can last for several years.

Though you might feel well at this stage, the virus is active, infecting new cells, making copies of itself and damaging your immune systems ability to fight illness.

How Do You Know If You Have Aids

In an official medical sense, AIDS is diagnosed when:

• An individual tests HIV-positive
• The respective HIV-positive individual has a CD4 cell count of less than or equal to 200cells/mm3
• 20 or more opportunistic infections are present in the respective HIV-positive persons body

It may not be that all qualifying criteria for the diagnosis of AIDS occurs simultaneously in the same person.

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How Do You Know If You Have Hiv

While there are symptoms and early warning signs of an HIV infection, the only way to know for sure whether you have the virus is by getting tested. This needn’t be a scary process, and it’s vital you seek treatment as soon as possible to avoid further complications or infecting others.

21-Nov-21·5 mins read

How Do You Get Hiv

HIV is transmitted through body fluids such as blood, semen, breast milk, and vaginal and rectal fluids. HIV can be transmitted by the following:

• Sexual intercourse
• Sharing of infected needles or razors

• Antiretroviral therapy for the HIV
• Antibiotics to treat additional infections
• Precautions to prevent other infections
• Vaccinations for infections that have a vaccine
• Eating healthy

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Can Hiv Be Prevented

To reduce the risk of getting HIV, people who are sexually active should:

• use a condom every time they have sex
• get tested for HIV and make sure all partners do too
• reduce their number of sexual partners
• get tested and treated for STDs having an STD increases the risk of HIV infection
• consider taking a medicine every day if they are at very high risk of getting infected

For everyone:

• Do not inject drugs or share any kind of needle.
• Do not share razors or other personal objects that may touch blood.
• Do not touch anyone else’s blood from a cut or sore.

How Does Acute Hiv Affect The Body

Once a person contracts HIV, the acute infection takes place immediately.

Symptoms of the acute infection may take place days to weeks after the virus has been contracted. During this time, the virus is multiplying rapidly in the body, unchecked.

This initial HIV stage can result in flu-like symptoms. Examples of these symptoms include:

• myalgias, or muscle pain

However, not all people with HIV experience initial flu-like symptoms.

The flu symptoms are due to the increase of copies of HIV and widespread infection in the body. During this time, the amount of CD4 cells starts to fall very quickly. The immune system then kicks in, causing CD4 levels to rise once again. However, the CD4 levels may not return to their pre-HIV height.

In addition to potentially causing symptoms, the acute stage is when people with HIV have the greatest chance of transmitting the virus to others. This is because HIV levels are very high at this time. The acute stage typically lasts between several weeks and months.

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How Long Does It Take For Hiv To Develop Into Aids

The time of seroconversion to AIDS, and eventually death, varies from one person to another. Its influenced by important things like getting tested, adhering to HIV treatment and practicing safe lifestyle choices. There is, however, a pattern that has been observed among people living with HIV, in terms of the time it takes to develop AIDS:

• Rapid progressors take 1-3 years.*
• Average progressors take 8-10 years.*
• Slow progressors take 15 years.

*These figures have been taken from the NCBI and are understood to reflect a progressive timeline for HIV-positive people who do not take ARVs.

There is a small group of people who are classified as non-progressors. The slow progression of these individuals is thought to be as a result of genetically inherited factors.