What everyone needs to know about AIDS

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

On the eve of the Day of Remembrance for those who died from AIDS, Lifehacker tells how not to become a victim of the disease.

Did a lot of people die from AIDS?

Yes many. Of course, everyone remembers Freddie Mercury or Rudolf Nureyev, but as of 2009, more than 35 million people died from AIDS.

The World Health Organization estimates that in 2016 alone, more than a million people died from causes related to HIV and AIDS. And this is at a time when high-quality therapy has already been invented, with the use of which the life of a person with HIV almost does not threaten anything.

According to the AIDS Center, in 2017, 31,898 HIV-positive people died in Russia (4.4% more than in 2016), that is, on average, 87 people died of the disease every day. The main cause of death is tuberculosis, which develops against the background of AIDS.

Please slow down. That HIV, then AIDS. What's the difference?

HIV is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It comes in two types, but the differences between them are not so great. When this virus enters the body, it begins to disable immune cells.

In 2017, 104,402 new diagnoses of HIV infection were recorded in Russia.

Federal Scientific and Methodological Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, Rospotrebnadzor

AIDS is an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. While HIV destroys immune cells, the body can still resist disease. AIDS is a condition where the immune system is already dead. Without urgent help, a person with AIDS will also be dead: all kinds of diseases that could attack the body will do it. And one will win sooner or later.

So they say they don't die of AIDS?

True, but there is just a confusion in the documents. In the column "cause of death", the doctor must write down the main cause of death. As a rule, these are purulent meningitis, pneumocystis pneumonia, Kaposi's sarcoma, other types of cancer and other terrible diseases that could not appear in the body without AIDS. That is, AIDS and HIV are to blame, because of which it arose.

Why can't the immune system defend itself anymore?

This is because HIV attaches and develops in immune T cells called CD4 cells. Usually these cells are just needed in order to eliminate the infection. But when they are captured by HIV, the body sees a shortage of the necessary cells and begins to actively produce them. Naturally, HIV immediately receives a new portion of "nutrition" for itself. There is a vicious circle in which the immune system works to wear and tear and loses its effectiveness.

And with such a work of immunity, there is a risk of diseases that a healthy body never dreamed of in nightmares.

And what should you do in order not to get infected?

HIV is transmitted through blood and certain body fluids (semen, lubricants). A mother can also transmit HIV to her baby during childbirth (if not kept under control) or through breast milk. Anyone can get HIV if:

• is sexually active;
• goes to have teeth treated and attends polyclinics;
• makes tattoos and piercings;
• is injecting drugs.

In a nail salon, you are unlikely to catch HIV, it is not a persistent virus. Rather, you can run into hepatitis there, but there is little pleasant in it.

How many years can a person with HIV live?

If he takes special antiretroviral therapy (ART or ART), then the same as any other - over 70 years.

Previously, ARVT was really difficult and difficult for patients to tolerate, so HIV carriers could live for about 10 years. But now the situation has changed. Modern drugs help to reduce the viral load (the amount of virus in the blood) so much that its effect on life is insignificant. In addition, these drugs are well tolerated. The main thing is adherence to treatment. This means that the drugs must be taken regularly.

Moreover, there are discordant pairs. In them, one partner is infected with HIV and the other is not. If the patient takes ART on time, then the second partner does not get sick. In addition, HIV-negative partners can take pre-exposure prophylaxis, which reduces the risk of infection.

In general, ART converts HIV from an acute illness to a chronic one, such as diabetes.

That is, now you can not take too much protection?

It is forbidden. No matter how cool the HIV drugs and doctors that give HIV-positive mothers healthy babies are, until the virus is completely cured. No one can guarantee that it is in your body that HIV will behave correctly and will not interfere while you are taking pills. Therefore, protect yourself.

In addition, there is a big problem: access to medicines. Not all patients are provided with ARVT therapy in the required amount. We are not yet producing the required medicines. Patients are completely dependent on the state and the drug procurement plan. It is clear that you should not rely on this. The average age at death of an HIV-positive person in Russia is 38 years.

And won't antibiotics help cure diseases?

No. First, not all diseases are treated with antibiotics. Viruses and cancers, for example, do not respond to this treatment. In addition, there is no such strong antibiotic that could replace immunity.

All treatment only works if the patient is on antiretroviral therapy.

And what should I do with all this information?

Go and donate blood to see if you have HIV. This can be done anonymously at AIDS centers.

I am afraid to donate blood, I am doing well, I have no symptoms

And they may not exist, and for a long time. HIV is an insidious disease that may not manifest itself for years, slowly eroding immunity and quickly turning into AIDS when the body's defense system is overloaded.

It is better to find out about the disease in time and contact the AIDS center in order to get medicines and all the information on how to live with this disease for you and your loved ones.