HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus and, just as the name suggests, it affects the immune system of people that is meant to protect the organism.
In case someone doesn’t have a strong immune system, it is more difficult for the organism to fight off infection. The infection caused and the virus is known as HIV.
White blood cells
When it comes to information about HIV the white blood cells need to be mentioned, because they represent and important feature of the immune system. The infection acts through destroying the white blood cells known as CD4+. In case there are too many destroyed, then the body won’t be able to fight with the infections.
AIDS
The last stage of the infection is known as AIDS that stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Those people who have a very low level of CD4+ are more likely to be affected by infections and cancers that healthy people aren’t affected by.
Difference between HIV and AIDS
It is an important piece of information about HIV that in case a person has HIV it doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she has AIDS. Even in case the person doesn’t receive treatment it is a long time of about 10-12 years, before HIV turns to AIDS.
In case the infection is recognized before it turns to AIDS, medication can be used to slow down or stop the damages of HIV. Due to the abundance of HIV information that is available, HIV positive people can have a long and happy life.
Causes of HIV
It is good to know information about HIV, such as the fact that it can be contracted through body fluids, such as blood, vaginal fluid or semen. In the majority of the cases people get infected through having sexual intercourse with another person who has been infected.
When looking for HIV information you should also know that it is common to contract the infection through sharing needles with a person who has been infected by the virus.
Another way of contracting HIV is for an HIV positive mother to give birth or by breastfeeding. It is important to know about HIV information, because in this case you know that the virus isn’t able to survive outside the body. This means that the infection cannot be contracted through sharing a glass or kissing.
Symptoms
In case you are interested in HIV information, you should know that at the early stages there are no symptoms of the infection. Even though people might have some symptoms they could confuse them with mono or the flu. The most common symptoms include fever, headache, sore throat, swollen glands, joint pain and muscle pain, and skin rash.
When it comes to information about HIV you should know that it takes a couple days or even a week for the first symptoms of infection to appear. Still these disappear after a couple of weeks. There is a lot more HIV information that you should know about in case you are interested so make sure you research the matter carefully.
