What are signs of AIDS?!
Question:
What are signs of AIDS?
I"m just asking. And no I don't have AIDS.
Additional Details2 weeks ago
Can you also die from it?
Answers:
Infection by HIV produces three phases of disease:
An early phase
that lasts about 2 weeks
is accompanied by fever, aches, and other flu-like symptoms
is accompanied by high levels of virus in the blood.
A middle phase with these features:
lasts for months or even years
produces few, if any, symptoms
The patient's blood contains few viruses, but contains antibodies to the virus. These antibodies are the basis of the most common test for HIV infection.
Continuous infection, death, and replacement of CD4+ T cells. The T cells are probably killed by the patient's CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (CTL). Some may die from apoptosis.
It is the late phase that is called AIDS. It has these features:
A rapid decline in the number of CD4+ T cells. When these drop below about 400 per µl (normal is >1000), the patients immunity is sufficiently weakened that opportunistic infections begin. These are infections caused by organisms that ordinarily do not cause disease symptoms in immunocompetent people. They include:
viruses, e.g., herpes simplex, herpes varicella-zoster, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
bacteria, e.g., Mycobacterium tuberculosis
fungi, e.g. Candida albicans (the cause of "thrush"), Pneumocystis jirovecii (causes pneumonia)
protozoans, e.g., Microsporidia
When the CD4+ count drops below 200 per µl, opportunistic infections become more severe and cancer (e.g., lymphoma, Kaposi's sarcoma) may develop. These usually kill the patient within a year or so.