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PATIENT INFORMATION

CLA: HIV/ AIDS

AIDS / HIV

AIDS is the acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, an infectious, eventually fatal disease caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (or HIV). 

HIV is spread by sexual contact (heterosexual or homosexual) or by exposure to infectious material (predominately blood, but also semen) through the skin through a cut or needle.  Consequently, the vast majority of HIV is spread by sexual contact, sharing of infective needles, accidental stick by an infective needle, contaminated blood products

(usually blood products for treatment for hemophiliacs).  Casual, everyday contact with AIDS patients has not been associated with the spread of the disease.  Therefore, shaking hands, sharing food, towels, perspiration, drinking cups, sneezing nearby and even kissing have not been shown to spread the virus. 

Once infected, a person will develop antibodies against HIV within around two weeks that will aide in testing the person for the disease, but the person is infectious to others through sexual contact or shared needles from the beginning.  The infected person may well not show obvious symptoms for up to ten years.  There are a wide variety of symptoms that may appear, but the most common are fever, night sweats, loss of appetite, skin rashes, diarrhea, tiredness, lack of resistance to infections, and swollen lymph nodes.

The AIDS virus causes disease by attacking the person’s immune system (specifically T-lymphocytes). Some patients pass through a less sick phase and reveal a specific set of symptoms which, taken together with a positive AIDS blood test, is called the AIDS Related Complex or ARC.

Eventually, the person’s immune system is so weakened that other viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi attack and the person is an easy target for a wide variety of diseases that healthy people fight off.  Some of the more common such “opportunistic” infections include tuberculosis and a pneumonia caused by the organism Pneumocystis carinii.  Certain cancers are also common in AIDS patients, one otherwise particularly rare one being Kaposi’s sarcoma (a cancer of blood vessels).

TREATMENT

The primary activity of the HIV is to enter the T-lymphocyte and cause it to make more HIV.  The HIV virus “directs” the T-lymphocyte to produce several kinds of protein enzymes, among which are two classes called proteases and reverse transcriptases.

Though there is no current cure for AIDS, several current antiviral drugs do keep the amount of new HIV particles produced in the person’s T-lymphocytes at lower levels by inhibiting the activities of these proteases and reverse transcriptases that the HIV has directed to be made.  Having fewer HIV particles in the body allows the person to feel better and more effectively fight off infections.

PREVENTION

The best ways to avoid getting AIDS are through safe sexual practices (or abstinence) and avoidance of sharing needles (or avoiding drugs altogether).

HIV TESTS

PRL uses a very sensitive screening blood test to detect the presence of antibodies produced in response to the presence of HIV in the person’s blood.  If this test is positive, we will have a second test performed at a specialty laboratory, which will be a confirmatory test.  This confirmatory test will, using a very sensitive technique called a Western Blot test, determine whether or not actual HIV particle fragments are present in the blood specimen.

If either or both of the above tests are abnormal, a PRL physician will discuss them with you.  You will be given some printed literature and you should discuss the test results with a physician.

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