HIV is acronym for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, while AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
To date, there are 35.3 million people living with HIV worldwide; where 2.1 million are adolescents, and 9.7 million sufferer are from low and middle-income countries.
DID YOU KNOW?
There is World AIDS Day since 1988, which unite the people worldwide to fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV and also commemorate people who have died of AIDS. It falls on 1st of December every year.
The World AIDS Day is important as it also raise public and government awareness, to improve public education as well as raise money for future research: the cure for HIV and AIDS.
In conjunction with world AIDS day, TuPSS will be sharing some knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS to increase public awareness and knowledge about the disease.
What HIV does?
HIV is a retrovirus that targets the CD4 (a protein strain on T-cells) and macrophages in body. Both CD4 and macrophages are responsible for body's immune system. By destroying CD4, patient affected with the virus will have depressed immune system, vulnerable to diseases. Often, self-limiting diseases may cause death for AIDS patient.
Stages of HIV infections.
1. Acute HIV Syndrome
Usually 2-4 weeks after HIV infection. There are some signs and symptoms of the acute HIV infection, that most people mistreated it as normal cold and flu.
Fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches and weight loss are the few signs and symptoms of HIV infection.
2. Clinical latency
HIV virus at this stage, is considered as hibernated. Very low level of virus count makes it undetectable. Patients will seemingly maintain a healthy CD4 cell count. This stage can be maintained up to 8 years. This is one of the reason why 6 out of 10 young people will not realise that they are infected.
3. AIDS
Patient at this stage is diagnosed when the CD4 cell count fall below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (< 200 cells/ mm3). This is a stage where the infected patient has a badly damaged immune system, vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Patient may suffer from diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, chills and fever.
Whitish coating on tongue, throat or vagina, purple spots in mouth and anus, unexplained shortness of breath are the symptoms to look up for too.
Risk Groups
In Malaysia, injecting drug users have higher risk of HIV as they have tendency to share needles and reuse needles. In 2000, 70-80% of reported HIV patients are injecting drug users. Although HIV is mainly transmitted through sex, but surprisingly, in about 81000 people who live with HIV in Malaysia, there is only 0.6% of them are sex workers.
Gays (men who have sexual activity with men) are more prone to HIV infection, because they often have anal sex, and do not use condom.
Adolescences below 19 years old contributed 3.5% of HIV positive patients in Malaysia. 54% of them got infected by vertical transmission, which is transmitted directly from mother to embryo during delivery or lactation.
Myths about HIV/AIDS
* HIV cannot spread by touch, tears, sweet or saliva.
* You can't get HIV by mosquito bites.
* You can't get HIV by using public facilities such as swimming pool and toilet.
* You can get HIV via oral sex.
* There is treatment for HIV patient (antiretroviral treatment) to reduce viral count in body and boost immune system, but NOT cure it.
* A person with negative HIV result might not be 100% correct: as there might be not enough antibodies for detection. A person must go through another screening after 3 months to validate the result.
HIV Screening
There are a few choices to screen for HIV infection.
If you are Malaysian, you can go to government hospital to get HIV screening for free.
1. antibody screening test
Our body will produce antibody to act against HIV. Through detection of the antibody, it can deflect whether a person is infected by HIV or not.
However, it needs 6-12 weeks for the body to produce the antibodies. Thus, a screening done before 6 weeks might not be accurate.
2. polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test
It detects genetic material of HIV. Using this method, HIV can be detected as early as 2-3 weeks after infection. However, this is way more costly as compared to antibody screening.
3. Oral HIV screening
Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), United States recently approve the sales of oral HIV screening test to public. It is able to detect both strain of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2 in saliva, and get the result within minutes. It is a small device mimics pregnancy test, has a high sensitivity of 92%. However it might show false negative test (8 in 100).
Last but not least, take this QUIZ to test your understanding!
And share it, spread the awareness!
To date, there are 35.3 million people living with HIV worldwide; where 2.1 million are adolescents, and 9.7 million sufferer are from low and middle-income countries.
DID YOU KNOW?
There is World AIDS Day since 1988, which unite the people worldwide to fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV and also commemorate people who have died of AIDS. It falls on 1st of December every year.
The World AIDS Day is important as it also raise public and government awareness, to improve public education as well as raise money for future research: the cure for HIV and AIDS.
In conjunction with world AIDS day, TuPSS will be sharing some knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS to increase public awareness and knowledge about the disease.
What HIV does?
HIV is a retrovirus that targets the CD4 (a protein strain on T-cells) and macrophages in body. Both CD4 and macrophages are responsible for body's immune system. By destroying CD4, patient affected with the virus will have depressed immune system, vulnerable to diseases. Often, self-limiting diseases may cause death for AIDS patient.
Stages of HIV infections.
1. Acute HIV Syndrome
Usually 2-4 weeks after HIV infection. There are some signs and symptoms of the acute HIV infection, that most people mistreated it as normal cold and flu.
Fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches and weight loss are the few signs and symptoms of HIV infection.
 |
| sign and symptoms of acute HIV syndrome. photo acquired from health boss |
2. Clinical latency
HIV virus at this stage, is considered as hibernated. Very low level of virus count makes it undetectable. Patients will seemingly maintain a healthy CD4 cell count. This stage can be maintained up to 8 years. This is one of the reason why 6 out of 10 young people will not realise that they are infected.
3. AIDS
Patient at this stage is diagnosed when the CD4 cell count fall below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (< 200 cells/ mm3). This is a stage where the infected patient has a badly damaged immune system, vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Patient may suffer from diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, chills and fever.
Whitish coating on tongue, throat or vagina, purple spots in mouth and anus, unexplained shortness of breath are the symptoms to look up for too.
 |
| Opportunistic infections photo adapted from womenshealth.org |
Risk Groups
In Malaysia, injecting drug users have higher risk of HIV as they have tendency to share needles and reuse needles. In 2000, 70-80% of reported HIV patients are injecting drug users. Although HIV is mainly transmitted through sex, but surprisingly, in about 81000 people who live with HIV in Malaysia, there is only 0.6% of them are sex workers.
Gays (men who have sexual activity with men) are more prone to HIV infection, because they often have anal sex, and do not use condom.
Adolescences below 19 years old contributed 3.5% of HIV positive patients in Malaysia. 54% of them got infected by vertical transmission, which is transmitted directly from mother to embryo during delivery or lactation.
Myths about HIV/AIDS
* HIV cannot spread by touch, tears, sweet or saliva.
* You can't get HIV by mosquito bites.
* You can't get HIV by using public facilities such as swimming pool and toilet.
* You can get HIV via oral sex.
* There is treatment for HIV patient (antiretroviral treatment) to reduce viral count in body and boost immune system, but NOT cure it.
* A person with negative HIV result might not be 100% correct: as there might be not enough antibodies for detection. A person must go through another screening after 3 months to validate the result.
HIV Screening
There are a few choices to screen for HIV infection.
If you are Malaysian, you can go to government hospital to get HIV screening for free.
1. antibody screening test
Our body will produce antibody to act against HIV. Through detection of the antibody, it can deflect whether a person is infected by HIV or not.
However, it needs 6-12 weeks for the body to produce the antibodies. Thus, a screening done before 6 weeks might not be accurate.
2. polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test
It detects genetic material of HIV. Using this method, HIV can be detected as early as 2-3 weeks after infection. However, this is way more costly as compared to antibody screening.
3. Oral HIV screening
Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), United States recently approve the sales of oral HIV screening test to public. It is able to detect both strain of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2 in saliva, and get the result within minutes. It is a small device mimics pregnancy test, has a high sensitivity of 92%. However it might show false negative test (8 in 100).
It is recommended to screen for HIV once a year, or every 6 months for those who are sexually active.
Prevention is better than cure!
Stigma and Discriminations
People living with HIV always faced the problem where they are discriminated and isolated from the public. This is because most people believe that HIV is highly contagious and it is better to avoid any possible contacts. Some people even thinks that it is due to their irresponsibility that they get HIV infection.
It may seems not important to most people, but it greatly affected HIV positive patient. They might lose jobs (which they are able to do just like anyone else), lose reputation, and feeling hopeless. They lose the right to receive a fair treatment.
Lets listen to what HIV patient have to say, you might have a deeper insight.
This is Kamaria, a HIV positive patient.
Last but not least, take this QUIZ to test your understanding!
And share it, spread the awareness!
references:
World Health Organisation
WebMD
Malaysian AIDS Council
worldsaidsday.org
aids.org
written by Ng Shu Hui
written by Ng Shu Hui
