perienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include fatigue, weight loss, frequent fevers and sweats, persistent or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal), persistent skin rashes, flaky skin, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in women that does not respond well to treatment, and short-term memory loss.
In addition, some individuals develop a painful nerve disease called shingles or frequent and severe herpes infections that cause sores to develop on the mouth, genitals, or anus. Infected children may be sick often, grow or gain weight slowly, or take longer to develop important mental and motor skills.
Although treatment can slow the progression of HIV, nearly all patients eventually develop AIDS. Once the patient's CD4 T-cell count is less than 200 cells per microliter of blood, their condition has progressed to AIDS, the final stage of the disease. Some patients are diagnosed with AIDS after they developan AIDS-defining illness, such as Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (formerly called Pneumocystis carinii or PCP). The first symptoms of AIDS often include moderate and unexplained weight loss, recurring respiratory tract infections, and oral ulcerations.
Patients with AIDS have the greatest risk of developing opportunistic infections and tumors. Opportunistic infections and tumors may include tuberculosis, thrush, herpes viruses, shingles, Epstein-Barr virus, pneumonia, and a type of cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). In the last stages of AIDS, it is common for individuals to develop respiratory infections, including cytomegalovirus or mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections.
Diagnosis: HIV is diagnosed after HIV antibodies or HIV itself is detected in the patient's body. As soon as the virus enters the body, the immune system produces antibodies, which are proteins that detect and bind to HIV. The presence of these antibodies, which may take months to build up to detectable levels in the blood, oral fluid, and urine, can be used to determine whether HIV is in the body.
It may take some time for the immune system to produce enough antibodies for the antibody test to detect them. This time period, known as the "window period," varies among patients. Most people will develop detectable antibodies two to eight weeks after exposure, with the average being 25 days. However, some individuals might take longer to develop detectable antibodies. Ninety-seven percent of patients develop antibodies within the first three months following the time of their infection. In very rare cases, it can take up to six months to develop antibodies to HIV. Therefore, if a patient tests negative for HIV in the first three months after possible exposure, repeat testing should be considered longer than three months after the exposure.
In the United States, the test results must remain confidential. Individuals who are younger than 18 years old can consent to or refuse to be tested for HIV, without the involvement of their legal guardians. Test results may not be released to the patient's legal guardian(s) without his/her consent
Treatment: Currently, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. Patients may receive a combination of anti-HIV drugs called antiretrovirals. These drugs interfere with the virus's ability to multiply, which subsequently boosts the immune system. HIV patients typically receive a combination of antiretroviral drugs, called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), because a single patient may have several different strains (types) of the virus circulating in the blood. The combination of drugs also helps prevent mutations from occurring. The different strains of the virus may respond differently to specific types of drugs. HAART is a combination of at least three drugs from at least two different classes. There are four major classes of antiretrovirals: fusion inhibitors, protease inhibitors, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Each drug class disrupts different stages of HIV's life cycle.
Although HAART may help patients live longer 