What is the human immunodeficiency virus?
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus responsible for causing the state known as the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It belongs to the Retroviridae family and the lentivirus , which includes the virus of immunodeficiency and the virus of beef immunodeficiency. There are two forms of human immunodeficiency virus known to cause AIDS in humans, HIV-1 and HIV-2. The human immunodeficiency virus is the most common type that generally causes AIDS in many parts of the world, including Europe and the United States, while HIV-2 has been isolated from patients in India and Western Africa.
Infection of human immunodeficiency virus usually affects the immune system and the central nervous system of patients. The virus, as soon as it enters the body, is capable of binding and entering the cells of the immune system, especially CD4+ T cells. These cells are important in defense of the body against infection. Destroying CD4+ T cells compensated by continuous production of these cells during the early course of the disease and many people infectedHIV must not show any symptoms of up to seven to ten years.
HIV testing, such as an enzyme -bound imumosorbent test (ELISA), can provide a positive result for two to six weeks from the day of infection. As the virus still multiplies inside the body, CD4+ t cells eventually fall in the number, allowing infections to develop. Symptoms associated with infection of human immunodeficiency virus range from mild to severe and include swollen lymph nodes, fever, muscle pain, headaches and diarrhea.
AIDS is the last stage of HIV infection. CD4+ t cells of some AIDS patients can even drop to 200 cells per mm
3
or less, from a normal value of 800 to 1000 cells per mmundisturbed sexual intercourse with an infected person is the most common way of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus. Sharing needles and syringes, as well as transfusions of infected blood, were accused of spreading the disease in other people. Infected mothers can also transfer the virus to their unborn baby in the uterus and their infants during birth when they pass through the infected birth of the canal or by ingesting breast milk. The virus cannot be transmitted to other people with occasional contact, such as kissing and sharing dishes or through Mosquito bites.