Archive for the 'HIV / AIDS' Category

Many of you might be aware of HIV, human immune deficiency virus, which is very dangerous and can lead to acute immune deficiency virus (AIDS).

HIV infection is transmitted mainly through sexual contacts.

It is a viral infection, which gradually damages your body immunity.

HIV infection mainly destroys the cells of your immune system and decreases your body’s ability to fight against the diseases which are caused due to fungal, viral and bacterial infections.

This dreadful infection can also make your body more prone to certain types of cancers and opportunistic to certain infections which your body would normally resist.

What are the other adverse effects of HIV infection?

HIV infection can also lead you to several other harmful diseases like lung cancer, heart attack and also tuberculosis. Recent studies have proved that people infected with HIV face nearly twice the risk of heart attack when compared with non infected patients.

Tuberculosis and HIV:

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common infection associated with HIV and causing death to several AIDS infected people. Having HIV, you are more susceptible to get infected with TB.

As it is difficult for a person to determine the presence of HIV virus in the body, the only possible way to confirm HIV is to get HIV/AIDS test.

AIDS test kit is an essential tool in the detection of AIDS, a disease that restrict the body’s ability to resist the infection.

With AIDS test, one can surely confirm the presence of HIV virus in the blood. If present, there is medical care to help out right away.

An AIDS test can be done at any medical center. Today, all medical centers (local, state and federal) are providing free HIV/AIDS test.

AIDS Test - Home Test Kit:

Today, the AIDS test can be done anonymously at home using AIDS test kit. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved HIV/AIDS home test. The AIDS home test is very safe, effective and accurate. It is more than 99% accurate in determining the HIV virus beyond six months after an exposure.

The Aids home tests are as accurate as the antibody tests and ELISA/Western Blot/IFA tests administered by doctors, hospitals and health clinics. Besides being speedy and convenient, the usage of AIDS test kit at home is very easy.

AIDS, stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, is a dangerous viral infection, which has no cure or treatment.

Prevention is the only way to get rid of this viral infection.

AIDS testing is a simple process in which you are advised to give a blood sample for the test. This process of testing for AIDS is some times known as AIDS serology.

The main aim of AIDS testing is to evaluate the presence of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in your immune system. It is also used to know the effect of this virus on the immune system of your body.

Serology is one of the branches of immunology which mainly deals with the characteristics and contents of blood serum.

AIDS testing is mandatory for these specific people:

Pregnant women: If you are pregnant, then it is very important for you to get tested for AIDS. There is a chance for the transmission of the virus from you to your unborn baby.

If it is detected in the initial stages, it can be prevented and you can protect your baby from the dreadful virus. Perinatal HIV transmission is mainly due to lack of voluntary counseling of AIDS during pregnancy.

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is a sexually transmitted disease that is caused by RNA retroviruses: HIV-1 and HIV-2.

It is also known as silent infection because the HIV Symptoms are asymptomatic in the initial stages (also known as latent phase).

Sexually transmitted diseases are the diseases that can spread easily through a sexual intercourse with an infected person, from mother to child during pregnancy and during breast-feeding.

The other sexually transmitted diseases are gonorrhea, genital warts, syphilis, and pelvic inflammatory diseases.

It is found that, in the United States, approximately forty thousand new HIV infection cases develop yearly and about half of the adults suffering with HIV virus are women.

When you first get infected with HIV virus, it initially affects the T-Cell (a type of white blood cell) and multiplies the T-cells to produce several copies of it. Thus, the virus can spread easily.

In this initial stage of infection, you may develop no or very few HIV symptoms. So, if you develop early HIV symptoms then it occurs within six to twelve weeks after you get infected with HIV virus.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus in short HIV is a retrovirus.

The rate of this virus is increasing day-by-day because of no cure.

However, an antiretroviral medication is available to control HIV virus.

HIV treatment through antiretroviral medications is known as Combined Antiretroviral Therapy or Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART).

The antiretroviral medications are also known as antiretrovirals, anti-HIV drugs or HIV antiviral drugs.

HAART is a combination of various anti-HIV drugs to fight against HIV and slow down the copying of HIV in your body. Remember that HIV treatment with antiretroviral medications cannot cure HIV, it only control the HIV virus from making copies of it.

This HIV treatment option is currently recommended by United States National Institutes of Health to all HIV patients as a way to control the virus and to remain strong and healthy for very long time.

It is estimated that over sixty million people all over the world are with HIV infection. Approximately fourteen thousand new HIV cases are raising each day and half of these are young adults below age twenty-five.

AIDS, as we all know, is a contagious disease but how many of us really know about AIDS and AIDS symptoms.

Actually, AIDS stands for “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome”.

It is the last and most severe stage of the HIV disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.

You get AIDS only when HIV destroys your body’s immune system.

Moreover, you need to understand that the term AIDS pertains to the most advanced stages of HIV infection.

Also, being diagnosed as HIV positive doesn’t mean that you are with AIDS because there is a possibility of being HIV positive, and not having AIDS.

Becoming infected with HIV and becoming ill from AIDS are two different things.

Mostly, it takes several years for the HIV virus infection to develop into AIDS symptoms.

Mostly, the AIDS symptoms are the infection’s results that usually do not develop in you with healthy immune systems. Moreover, you may experience no symptoms in the early stages. You can live with AIDS for years not even knowing of its presence in your body.

HIV is the abbreviation for human immunodeficiency virus. HIV Virus is a type of virus called retrovirus.

The virus is of two types: HIV-1 and HIV-2. The HIV virus attacks the T-cells of the human immune system.

Immune system is responsible to fight against the viruses that cause infections to your body.

The size of the HIV virus will be around 0.0001mm, which is too small to see through an ordinary microscope. The HIV virus can be seen easily through electron microscope.

When the HIV virus enters your body, it uses the cells of your immune system to reproduce on its own and reduces the number of healthy T-cells. Thus, it weakens the ability of the immune system to fight against the virus.

The HIV virus reproduces by using the cell’s replicating enzyme. So, the virus uses the cells that have proteins called CD4 receptors on their surfaces because it facilitate the virus to bind with the cell. This is called binding process.

The HIV virus targets the T-cells. The T-cells are a type of white blood cells with plenty of CD4 receptors and responsible for informing your immune system about the virus in the body.

HIV stands For Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

The presence of the HIV in your blood can be identified through HIV test.

Today, there are three major types of HIV test: antibody test, antigen test, and DNA test.

Each test can determine a specific substance that is present in the blood of an infected person.

The Antibody Test

It is also known as ELISA - Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay test. It is the first HIV test to determine the antibodies in the blood of an infected person.

When HIV virus enters your body, it generates some proteins called antibodies and releases into the blood to fight against the foreign organisms such as virus.

Remember that the HIV antibodies will not be produced immediately when you get infected. It usually takes 1-2 months to appear in your blood.

The period of time between an exposure of an infection and development of antibodies is known as window period. So, ELISA test is ineffective during window period.

For this test, a sample of your blood will be taken to identify the presence of antibodies to HIV virus. If the results are positive, then it confirms that you are infected with HIV virus. If the test results are negative, it indicates that there are no antibodies against HIV in your blood.