HIV/AIDS is a STD which is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The HIV virus attacks the immune system and makes the body vulnerable to other diseases. AIDS is the last stage disorder caused by HIV infection. This disorder destroys the human immune system which might lead to other life- threatening diseases such as cancer. If diagnosed with HIV, one must necessarily maintain a healthy dietary regime because the nutrients one derives go on to contribute to the development of the immune system, thus providing resistance to the side effects of the HIV medicines.

The early symptoms of HIV/AIDS appear within a few weeks after sexual contact. The early symptoms include a headache, pain in the muscles and the joints, rashes and inflamed lymph nodes. The early symptoms tend to disappear within 2 to 3 weeks. The next set of symptoms might appear after a few years which might be persistent. The symptoms include fatigue, loss of body weight, inflated lymph nodes, fever and sweat during the night.

If you are diagnosed with HIV, you should:

Try to maintain a daily diet containing vegetables, legumes, and fruits which provide you energy.
Try to include a little bit of fat, carbohydrates (at least 3 servings of vegetable per day), calcium (dairy products) and low-fat protein sources (generally 80-150 gram per day of fish, skinned chicken, low-fat cheese etc.) in your everyday meal.
Maintain a daily calorie intake of 17-25 calories per pound depending on whether the person is losing weight.
Vitamins and minerals are particularly necessary to repair the cells damaged by the HIV virus. 
So, it is necessary to intake foods such as eggs, milk, peanuts, green vegetables, meat, beans and broccolis on a regular basis, if you have been diagnosed with HIV.

If you are suffering from HIV, you must maintain the following food safety measures:

You should try to restrict the intake of fat
Restrict your alcohol intake
You should try to avoid fast foods
You should also limit your regular sugar intake and should avoid foods with extra sugar

HIV/AIDS: Diet, Nutrition and Food Safety You Must Follow

4 Effects of HIV on the Body

HIV, which is short for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, penetrates your body and directly attacks your immune system. In this process, the virus weakens your body's natural defense mechanism against diseases and infections. A compromised immune system makes the body prone to minor infections, which healthy people would generally overcome. The virus itself doesn't cause any physical symptoms. It only serves to ease the entry of other bacteria and viruses into the body.

The following are some of the ways HIV affects your body:

1. Immune system

The human immunodeficiency virus destroys CD4 cells, the white blood cells that help the immune system ward off foreign substances. If left unchecked, HIV can develop into AIDS. During such time, the virus may damage the immune system to an extent that it wouldn't be able to ward off minor infections that a healthy immune system would. A person with HIV could thus suffer from fever, chills, sweats, shortness of breath, white spots in the mouth, fatigue, skin rash and weight loss from time to time.

2. Respiratory system

As HIV develops into AIDS, the body can contract infections such as pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), tuberculosis and Kaposi's sarcoma. These conditions lead to serious respiratory problems. PCP is found to be one of the most common infections among people with HIV. 85% of the people would develop the infection if the condition is left untreated.

3. Skin problems

As in healthy individuals, many skin conditions can also occur in people with HIV or AIDS. But a compromised immune system heightens the condition and causes difficulty in treatment. Dermatitis, psoriasis, and hives are common conditions. They are also prone to a rare type of skin cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma.

4. Gastrointestinal System

Gastrointestinal disorders are the most common ailments for people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. Problems faced include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal pain and gastrointestinal bleeding. 50% of the people suffering from HIV encounter gastrointestinal disorders at some point of their illness.



4 Effects HIV has on the Body

Chlamydia is a Sexually Transmitted Disease. It is generally found in men and women under the age of 25. Researchers have found that in the United States about 2.9 million individuals develop this disease every year. 

Here are things that you must know about the disease:

What is it all about?
It is caused due to bacterial infection and is transferred sexually. You can be infected with disease by having vaginal, oral or anal sex with the patient. You must be aware of the fact that you can develop chlamydia even if your partner doesn t ejaculate inside your vaginal tract. If you had suffered from this disease in the past, you can still get it again by having unprotected sex with an infected person.

What are the symptoms of this disease?
There aren t any obvious symptoms for this disease. Most of the patients show no sign of developing this disease. Thus, you never get to know when you were infected actually. However, some patients do reflect some symptoms after 4 to 5 days of infection. These symptoms include abnormal penis or vaginal discharge and painful, burning urination. Men can also develop a bleeding rectum.

How do you know for sure that you are infected?
Well, you can get yourself tested to confirm about the infection.

What happens if you don t get treated?
If the patient doesn t seek medical help, he or she is posing threat to his or her health. Women may develop pelvic inflammatory diseases, infertility or ectopic pregnancy. In men, it can cause pain and fever as the infection spreads along the tube carrying sperm.

Is there any treatment?
This disease is curable. But it is important to avoid sexual contact with anyone during the period of treatment or medication. First, you need to undertake the test to confirm the infection. You shouldn t have sex for seven days after the treatment is over. It is advisable to get yourself tested thrice in a year.

Chlamydia - Things You Must Know About It!

Hiv or the human immunodeficiency virus is the lentivirus which causes hiv infection and leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or aids.

The symptoms of hiv vary from person to person. There are three main stages of hiv infections, where each stage has different symptoms.

Here are some facts about the three stages of hiv infections along with the accompanying symptoms.

Acute hiv infection stage
This is the first stage of hiv infection and after three to four weeks of becoming hiv infected, people experience symptoms, which are similar to flu. This flu usually does not last more than two weeks.

Symptoms include:
Fever
Rashes on the body
A sore throat
Swelling of different glands
Headache
Joint and muscle pain
Improper digestion

These symptoms appear and indicate that the body is reacting to the hiv. Infected cells circulate throughout the blood, and the immune system produces hiv antibodies in order to attack the viruses. This process is termed as seroconversion, and it takes place within 45 days of getting infected. The levels of virus in your blood are quite high during this stage.

Clinical latency stage
This is the second stage of hiv infection, which follows the early stage. This stage is also known as chronic hiv stage. During this stage, hiv is active, but is reproduced at a very low level. People in this stage may not receive symptoms related to hiv or may get mild indications.

In case of people who do not take medicines for hiv treatment, this stage lasts for a long period. Some people, however, progress faster through this stage. Medicines should be taken to keep the virus in check. During this stage, people can transmit hiv to others very easily in spite of not experiencing any symptoms. People who are on medication stay suppressed virally and have a low level of hiv in their blood, and the risk of transmission is less.

Symptomic hiv infection or aids stage
This is the third stage of hiv infection, which is characterized by severe damage to the immune system of an hiv-virus affected person. A patient is likely to have serious infections and gets bacterial or fungal diseases. The infections are termed as opportunistic infections. The patient is now said to be having aids.

The symptoms of this stage are:
Loss of weight
Diarrhoea
Sweating at night
Fevers and persistent coughing
Problems in the mouth and skin
Infections on a regular basis
Illness and development of other diseases.

Hiv infection affects the body via three stages and leads to aids in the third stage. Each stage is accompanied by several symptoms.

Stages and Symptoms of HIV Infections

Hearing that a person is HIV positive instantly makes us wary of him or her and unconsciously we may begin avoiding social interactions with them. However, HIV does not spread through the air or by water and hence there is no reason to ostracize HIV positive people. To understand how to prevent the transmission of HIV it is essential to first understand how the virus is transferred from one person to another. There are three ways in which this virus can be transmitted from an HIV positive person to another. These are:

Through blood
Through bodily fluids such as semen and vaginal or rectal fluids
From a mother to a child
Keeping this in mind, here are a few ways to prevent the transferring of HIV from one person to another:



Use only Disposable Syringes: Getting pricked by a needle that has been used on a HIV positive patient can increase your risk of suffering from the disease. Hence, insist on using a fresh needle for blood tests etc. Also ensure that the syringe and needle and destroyed after being used.
Registered Blood Banks: In case you need a blood transfusion, get blood only from registered blood banks. These blood banks need to run HIV screening tests before collecting blood and hence are guaranteed to have only HIV negative blood as opposed to local quacks.
Use a Condom: The only way to prevent the transference of HIV cells while having intercourse is by using a condom. This is essential not only for vaginal intercourse but for anal intercourse as well.
Get Tested: Today, an HIV screening test can be easily done and your results are guaranteed to be kept confidential. STDs can increase your risk of getting infected with HIV or spreading it to others. Get tested regularly for STDs and insist that your partners are checked for it as well. This is crucial if you have more than one sexual partner.
Limit the Number of Sexual Partners: The more number of people you have sex with, the higher your chance of getting infected with the virus and transmitting it to others. Remember, HIV has no overt symptoms that are visible to the naked eye.
HIV cannot be cured but it can be controlled through medication. Hence, if you suffer from this disease, follow the doctor's prescription religiously to prevent transmitting the virus to your partner. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor.

HIV/AIDS - How To Prevent It?

Tuberculosis is an opportunistic infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The infections occurring in people with weak immunity as compared to the people with a healthy immune system are called as opportunistic infections. As, HIV enters the human body, it replicates and weakens the immune system which in turn increases the risk of contracting Tuberculosis in people already suffering from HIV infection.

An HIV and Tuberculosis co-infection occurs when an individual has both, the HIV infection and an either latent or active TB disease simultaneously.  Each disease acts in speeding up the progress of the other, when HIV and TB infection is present together in the body. HIV infection speeds up the progression from latent to active Tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis also accelerates the progression of replication and spread of the HIV infection.

HIV infection and Tuberculosis are totally different type of infectious diseases. HIV is a viral infection and TB is a bacterial one. An HIV infected person will not contract TB unless a contact happens with a TB infected person. TB spreads via droplet infection and is communicable. If a person lives in a country with a high prevalence rate of TB, an HIV patient is highly susceptible to contracting the infection. In the similar manner, a person suffering from TB gets infected with the HIV infection only through the blood and bodily fluids borne route, with unprotected sexual intercourse with an HIV infected individual being the most important cause.

Amongst all the other opportunistic infections, TB occurs at an earlier stage in the course of an HIV infection than most other opportunistic infections. Mortality rate in the co-infected patients is more than twice that of HIV infected individuals without a TB infection. Even if a patient is undergoing anti-retroviral therapy, the death rates remain high in co-infected individuals.The natural history and course of TB gets altered in people with an infected immune system. The damage to immunity due to HIV infection causes a drastic reduction in the pathogen killing capacity of the body. In such patients if there is no anti-retroviral treatment prescribed, then the latency period between the infection and progression of disease gets eliminated. 

An active phase of TB is observed in such individuals progressing within a short span of time, ranging from weeks to months, rather than years as it normally should be spanning. Risk of progression from a latent stage to an active stage of TB is around 10-15 times greater in an HIV infected individual as compared to the non-infected person. Such individuals also communicate the disease more rapidly to others.Pulmonary tuberculosis in an HIV infected person can present similar symptoms like that of a classic TB disease. However, a co-infection can sometimes show less presenting TB symptoms, where even the chest X-ray scans can be observed to be normal. A  subclinical  phase of Tb in co-infected patients can cause delay in the diagnosis of the symptoms and subsequently affect the prognosis due to lack of timely treatment.

Social stigma and discrimination has caused an obstacle in provision of adequate treatment for people with HIV. Proper counseling  and initiatives taken to provide indiscriminate care can aid in identification of co-infection and earlier stages. Anti-retroviral treatment teamed up with anti-tubercular drug regimen is prescribed and a successful treatment for drug sensitive cases of TB can be provided with medications for 6-8 months.

How HIV & TB  Are Related?

Don't wait any longer, manage your HIV Specialist online with a Lybrate doctor today

Consult for HIV Specialist - Online and Easy!

FilterClear All

COMMON SPECIALITIES

COMMON ISSUES