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Figure 1. Early Symptoms of HIV. The stages of HIV infection are acute infection (also known as primary infection), latency, and AIDS. Acute infection lasts for several weeks and may include symptoms such as fever, swollen lymph nodes, inflammation of the throat, rash, muscle pain, malaise, and mouth and esophageal sores. The latency stage ...
The use of antiretroviral therapies have decreased the risk of early mortality and improved the quality of life for people who are HIV-positive. A significant increase in the use of these medications have been seen over the years, from an estimated 7.7 million people receiving these antiretrovirals therapies in 2010, to approximately 24.5 million estimated people worldwide in 2018. [9]
HIV is a retrovirus that primarily infects components of the human immune system such as CD4 + T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. It directly and indirectly destroys CD4 + T cells. [88] HIV is a member of the genus Lentivirus, [89] part of the family Retroviridae. [90] Lentiviruses share many morphological and biological characteristics.
After the virus enters the body there is a period of rapid viral replication, leading to an abundance of virus in the peripheral blood. During primary infection, the level of HIV may reach several million virus particles per milliliter of blood. [2] This response is accompanied by a marked drop in the numbers of circulating CD4 + T cells.
The suppression of CD4 T cells by HIV (or by immunosuppressive drugs) causes a decrease in the body's normal response to certain infections. Not only does this make it more difficult to fight the infection, it may mean that a level of infection that would normally produce symptoms is instead undetected (subclinical infection).
HIV is carried in body fluids and is spread by sexual activity. It can also be spread by contact with infected blood, breastfeeding, childbirth, and from mother to child during pregnancy. [73] When HIV is at its most advanced stage, an individual is said to have AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). [74]
The within-host dynamics of HIV infection include the spread of the virus in vivo, the establishment of latency, the effects of immune response on the virus, etc. [6] [7] Early studies used simple models and only considered the cell-free spreading of HIV, in which virus particles bud from an infected T cell, enter the blood/extracellular fluid ...
When people are exposed to HIV-positive infectious bodily fluids either through skin puncture, contact with mucous membranes or contact with damaged skin, they are at risk for acquiring HIV. Pooled estimates give a risk of transmission with puncture exposures of 0.3% [ 115 ] and mucous membrane exposures 0.63%. [ 116 ]