AIDS is a serious infectious disease in which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a transcription enzyme virus, invades the human body and destroys the immune function, eventually leading to the death of the infected person. The full medical name of AIDS is "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome" (AIDS). From this name, we can understand the complete concept of AIDS: Acquired: indicates that the cause of the disease is acquired rather than innate. Immunodeficiency: It means that in terms of pathogenesis, it is mainly caused by the damage of the human immune system, which leads to the reduction and loss of the protective function of the immune system. The ****similar characteristics of immunodeficiency diseases are: 1. markedly increased susceptibility to infection; 2. susceptibility to malignant tumors; 3. diverse clinical and pathological manifestations. Syndrome: denotes a complex cluster of symptoms in terms of clinical signs and symptoms due to opportunistic infections and tumors in various systems caused by immunodeficiency.
Once the human body is infected by HIV, it will take the most important T4 lymphocytes in the body's immune system as the target of attack, and massively engulf and destroy the T4 lymphocytes, thus destroying the human immune system, causing the immune system to collapse, and ultimately causing the organism to lose the ability to resist diseases, at which time various pathogens and microorganisms can invade the human body through the bloodstream and broken wounds. Some abnormal cells in the body, such as cancer cells, can also grow and multiply rapidly and develop into various types of cancer tumors, which can lead to the failure of various human functions and death.
AIDS has the following characteristics
1. The AIDS pathogen is a retrovirus. It reproduces very quickly
2. Instead of destroying one of the body's organs, HIV destroys the body's immune system, causing damage to multiple organs. HIV is a T4-lymphophilic (T4 lymphocytes play a central regulatory role in the cellular immune system, which promotes the production of antibodies by B-cells) and neurophilic virus that destroys the body's immune system and destroys brain tissue.
3. HIV mutates very quickly, and two variants have been identified: type I and type II, and there are 12 subtypes of type I and 6 subtypes of type II.
4. The antibodies produced by the human body after infection with HIV have no protective effect on the human body, and if the test is positive, the human body is infected with HIV.
5. HIV has a very poor ability to survive outside the human body, does not tolerate high temperatures, low resistance, leaving the body is not easy to survive, only a few hours to a few days at room temperature. Sensitive to heat, inactivated in 30 minutes at 56 degrees; sensitive to many chemicals, such as 75% alcohol, 2.5% sulfur tincture, 0.5% sodium hypochlorite and other general disinfectants, inactivated in 1 minute; insensitive to ultraviolet light.
The infection process of AIDS
There is a complete process from HIV infection to the onset of the disease, and this process is divided into four phases: acute infection, latent period, pre-AIDS, and typical AIDS. Of course, not every infected person will show the four stages of manifestations, but patients in each stage of the disease can be seen in the clinic.
1, acute infection, the window period is also in this time. HIV invades the human body to stimulate the body caused by the response. During the acute infection period, the symptoms are often mild and easily overlooked. After being infected for 2-6 weeks, serum HIV antibodies can show a positive reaction. Thereafter, there is a clinically variable length of relatively healthy, asymptomatic incubation period. The window period is also during this time. The window period refers to the period of time between the time the organism is infected with HIV and the production of appropriate antibodies. It usually averages 2-3 months, and although the corresponding antibodies cannot be detected, they are still contagious.
2, incubation period, the infected person may not have any clinical symptoms, but the incubation period is not a static period, not to mention the safe period, the virus continues to reproduce, with strong destructive effect. The incubation period refers to the time from the beginning of HIV infection to the appearance of clinical signs and symptoms of AIDS. The average incubation period for AIDS is now considered to be 2-10 years. This makes early detection of patients and prevention very difficult.
3, pre-AIDS, incubation period after the beginning of AIDS-related symptoms and signs, until the development of a typical Ai moving disease - a period of time. The patient already has the most basic characteristics of AIDS, namely cellular immunodeficiency, only the symptoms are milder.
4. The typical AIDS period, which some scholars call lethal AIDS, is the final stage of HIV infection. This stage has three basic features: severe cellular immunodeficiency, the occurrence of various fatal opportunistic infections, and the occurrence of various malignant tumors. In the terminal stage of AIDS, the immune function collapses completely and the patient develops a variety of serious syndromes until death.
Transmission of AIDS
HIV is mainly found in the blood and sexual secretions of patients and asymptomatic infected people, and a small amount of saliva, tears and breast milk, which are all infectious. HIV is transmitted through three main ways, namely:
1. Sexual transmission: through unprotected heterosexual or homosexual sex.
2. Bloodborne transmission: spread through *** injecting drugs with unsterilized syringes and needles, importing HIV-containing blood or blood products, using unsterilized or poorly sterilized medical devices (e.g., needles, acupuncture needles, dental equipment, cosmetic equipment, etc.), and *** shaving (shaving) razors and toothbrushes, etc.
3.
3. Mother-to-child transmission: Infected mothers can pass the virus to their fetus or baby during pregnancy, labor, and breastfeeding. As the blood, sexual secretions and saliva, tears and breast milk of HIV-infected patients are infectious and HIV itself has a certain ability to survive in nature, transmission through daily close contact cannot be completely ruled out, especially if the individual's immunity is low, broken skin or mucous membranes (e.g., respiratory, digestive inflammation, ulcers) accidentally come into contact with infected persons through various means blood and sexual secretions and even saliva and tears, there is a possibility of infection.
AIDS (AIDS) is not transmitted through the air, diet (water), through general daily contact in public **** places (such as shaking hands, seats, toilets, bathtubs, etc., in public **** places), through banknotes, coins, tickets and mosquito and fly bites, and not in swimming pools.
How can we prevent the spread of HIV?
We can see from the above that AIDS is both scary and not scary. It's scary because there's no effective treatment for it, and there's no cure. It's not scary because the transmission of AIDS is very limited, only three ways, it will not spread greatly, it can be prevented. Generally speaking, the effective way to prevent infectious diseases is to take measures against the source of infection, means of transmission and susceptible groups, which are equally effective in preventing AIDS:
1. The most effective way to prevent sexual transmission of AIDS is to take measures against the source of transmission and the vulnerable groups, which are also effective in preventing AIDS:
1.
2. Preventing HIV transmission through blood. To prevent HIV from spreading through blood, we must first take strong social preventive measures, which mainly include the following important aspects:
(1) Ensure the safety of medical blood and blood products; we must further ensure the safety of blood use, advocate citizens to donate blood free of charge, and minimize or eliminate the sale of blood, as well as educate blood suppliers on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS, and urge people with high-risk behaviors not to donate blood.
(2) Strict control of blood transfusion indications in medical treatment, not using untested blood products, and reducing unnecessary blood transfusions are also important measures to reduce the spread of HIV through blood transfusion.
(3) Comprehensively strengthen the implementation of measures to prevent hospital-acquired infections, and prevent the transmission of HIV in health care services (including patient-to-provider, patient-to-patient, and provider-to-patient)
(4) Individual preventive behaviors are also very important in reducing the risk of HIV infection through blood transfusion. 2) Do not use drugs in any way, stay away from drugs, and especially do not use other people's used syringes to inject drugs.
3. Prevention of mother-to-child transmission. HIV can be transmitted during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or during breastfeeding after the child is born. Women infected with HIV should avoid pregnancy and have an abortion if they become pregnant. The use of antiretroviral drugs before and after delivery can reduce the chance of mother-to-child transmission. Artificial feeding can also reduce the risk of HIV infection. Improve women's nutrition, prevent anemia, treat infections, prevent bleeding during pregnancy and after delivery, and reduce unnecessary blood transfusions. HIV-infected women should avoid pregnancy, and if they do become pregnant, they need to be treated with AZT or similar drugs during pregnancy, deliver by cesarean section, and avoid breastfeeding after delivery. Provide early HIV diagnosis for newborns after delivery and regular checkups for treatment.
4. Caring for, helping and not discriminating against AIDS patients and HIV-infected people, and encouraging them to participate in the prevention and treatment of AIDS are important aspects of the prevention and control of AIDS.
5. Incineration can be used for contaminated waste. HIV itself is sensitive to heat and can be inactivated in 60 minutes at 60 degrees Celsius. Items that need to be reused can be sterilized by boiling or autoclaving. Items that should not be boiled can be soaked in glutaraldehyde and 75% alcohol. Bleach, sodium hypochlorite, and alcohol are commonly used to disinfect contaminated environments and surfaces. Generally used for hepatitis B disinfection drugs, can also be used for HIV disinfection.