The syndrome of acquired immunodeficiency is caused by HIV infection, which can enter the body through infected biological fluids (blood, lymph, sperm) with unsafe sexual intercourse or manipulation with non-sterile medical instruments.
How does HIV infection manifest itself?
The immunodeficiency virus has an incubation period that lasts about 3-6 weeks. After this time, in 50-70% of cases, an acute febrile phase begins, which is accompanied by:
- high temperature (often not higher than 37.5 ° C);
- pain in the throat;
- pain in the joints, muscles;
- headache;
- drowsiness, general malaise, loss of appetite;
- increased lymph nodes;
- nausea, diarrhea, vomiting;
- skin rashes, lesions of the mucosa;
- serous meningitis (extremely rare).
Unfortunately, it is easy to confuse an ordinary cold and the first symptoms of HIV, which manifest themselves nonspecifically and go through 1-2 weeks (how long the acute febrile phase will take, depends on the state of the patient's immunity).
In 10% of cases, HIV infection occurs at lightning speed, and accordingly, AIDS manifests itself very quickly - as a rule, a few weeks after infection, the patient's condition rapidly deteriorates.
Asymptomatic period
The acute febrile phase is replaced by an asymptomatic period when the HIV-infected patient feels completely healthy. It lasts an average of 10-15 years.
In 30-50% of patients, the asymptomatic phase occurs immediately after the incubation period.
Absence of symptoms makes it possible to lead a full-fledged lifestyle. However, if the patient still does not know about his HIV-positive status and does not follow the level of CD-4 lymphocytes, this time of ignorance can play a cruel joke.
The course of HIV infection
During the asymptomatic period, the number of CD4 lymphocytes decreases slowly. When their content reaches 200 / μl, they talk about immunodeficiency. The body begins to attack the pathogens of opportunistic infections (conditionally pathogenic flora), which are not threatened by a healthy person and, moreover, live in the mucous and intestines.
The rate of decrease in the number of CD4 T lymphocytes is always individual and depends on the activity of the virus. To determine at what stage the infection and how much time is left before AIDS develops, analysis allows every HIV-positive patient (immune status) to be taken out every 3-6 months.
The initial form of AIDS
AIDS as a developed stage of HIV is manifested in women and men in two forms.
For the initial form, weight loss is less than 10% of the initial mass. There are skin lesions caused by fungi, viruses, bacteria:
- candidiasis stomatitis - thrush of the oral cavity;
- shingles - rashes and vesicles predominantly on the trunk;
- hairy leukoplakia of the mouth - plaques and grooves of white on the sides of the tongue;
- recurrent herpes.
At the initial stage, AIDS is manifested, as a rule, also in the form of recurrent otitis (ear inflammation), pharyngitis (inflammation of the back wall of the throat) and sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses of the nose). As the course of AIDS, these diseases increase and become chronic.
Severe form of AIDS
Weight loss in the second stage is more than 10% of the mass. The above symptoms are supplemented:
- diarrhea and / or fever for more than 1 month;
- tuberculosis;
- toxoplasmosis;
- intestinal helminthiasis;
- Kaposi's sarcoma;
- pneumocystis pneumonia;
- lymphomas.