AIDS
Acquired Immunodeficiency Disorder
AIDS or Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a set of symptoms and infections, caused by the HIV virus, resulting from damage to the human immune system. Essentially, AIDS is the last stage of the infection and. Cell mediated immunity is lost, and infections with a variety of opportunistic bacteria appear when T cell numbers decline below a critical level. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the definition of AIDS is when the CD4 T cell count is below 200 per UL of blood or 14% of all lymphocytes. The World Health Organization has classified the HIV virus into four stages. Stage 1 is asymptomatic and is not categorized as AIDS. Stage II includes persistent upper respiratory tract infections minor mucocutaneous manifestations Stage III includes severe bacterial infections, unexplained chronic diarrhea that lasts longer than a month, and pulmonary tuberculosis. Stage IV includes toxoplasmosis of the brain, candidiasis of the esophagus, trachea, bronchi, or lungs, and Kaposi’s sarcoma. All of the above mentioned diseases are indicators of AIDS.
AIDS Treatment
As of now, without AIDS treatment 9/10 person with HIV will progress to AIDS after 10-15 years; however many progress much sooner. AIDS treatment with anti-retrovirals increase the life expectancy of people infected with HIV. Even after HIV has progressed to diagnosable AIDS, the average survival time, with the help of antiretroviral therapy, is projected to be more than 5 years. As of now there is no AIDS treatment. There are no vaccines or cures for HIV or AIDS. The main option in AIDS treatment is anti viral therapy however the dosing schedule is extremely demanding and it has extremely unpleasant side effects including diarrhea, malaise, nausea, and fatigue. Current AIDS treatment is highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART. This form of AIDS treatment has been quite beneficial to HIV/AIDS patients since its introduction in 1996. In this type of AIDS treatment the drug cocktails consist of at least three drugs belonging to at least two types, or classes of antiretroviral agents. In HAART AIDS treatment, the primary goals are to improve the patient’s quality of life, reduction in complications, and reduction of HIV below the limit of detection, however no AIDS treatment will cure the patient of HIV and it will not be able to prevent the return once treatment is stopped. AIDS treatment in the form of HAART will increase the median survival time after dev
eloping AIDS from 9.2 months (no treatment) to 4-12 years. There are also some experimental and proposed AIDS treatment plans however nothing has proven to be extremely promising. Alternative medicine has also been used to treat some AIDS symptoms or alter the course of the disease. Acupuncture has been used in many instances to alleviate some symptoms such as peripheral neuropathy. However, the issue still exists that there is no permanent cure or AIDS treatment as of yet.