Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Here are Symptoms, Transmission, and Diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Hello, I am Dr. Ajay Kumar. I have done my diploma in medicine and also done my fellowship in HIV from CMC Vellore. So today I am going to talk about HIV.

What are the symptoms of HIV, how it is transmitted and also about the diagnosis of HIV? HIV is a retrovirus which is transmitted sexually. Apart from the sexual contact which is the most common mode of transmission, there are other modes of transmission for HIV like it can be transmitted through injections, through blood transfusions or by contaminated instruments or through mother to a child also it can be transmitted. And also it can be transmitted breast feeding. I will be just showing the short video how the virus affects the cells in the body. This is a virus, HIV virus immunodeficiency virus, which infects all the cells in our body. It especially affects the CD4 cells which are responsible for the immunity of a person. Once the virus enters the cell it will multiply. It will first replicate from RNA becomes DNA, and this DNA virus which then copies itself to our nucleus and then it starts multiplying. So over a period of time, these cells start multiplying and will be affecting so many cells, all the cells like Red blood cells, White blood cells, and other platelets. So the patient will have multiple immune deficiencies. So you can see here how the virus is replicating itself after every minute some thousands of viruses will be affecting these cells and within a short span of time new virus copies will be released. So these virus copies again will be affecting other cells and again they will be multiplying in those cells.

So here we can see the virus which has infected us come out, new more copies have produced. So once the virus infects the cells it starts killing the cells and the patient’s immunity will be gradual will be decreasing so then the patient will complain of the symptoms. So what are the symptoms of HIV? In generally in initial stages, patients will not have any symptoms. Patients will be absolutely a symptomized. Later on, when the patient’s immunity declines than the patients complain of some fatigue and they will complain of weakness. Then, later on, the patient might complain of fever, cough and the virus because it affects so many organs so the symptom will depend on the organ of infection. Suppose for instance when the patient is having a lung problem, like for instance the patient because of low immunity if he gets infected with some lung infection he will be presenting with a cough, shortness of breath or fever. Like for instance if the patient is getting any a headache or the patient is having some infections in the brain he can present like with a headache, it can present like with seizures like fits or it can present with loss of consciousness. Likewise, if the patient is having symptoms in the stomach like sometimes patient against of loose motions, vomiting then we might suspect that the patient is having some abdominal infection. So depending upon the organ of infection the patient might complain about various symptoms. So there is no symptom which is very specific to HIV but depending upon the organ of infection the symptoms might vary.

So WHO has given staging of HIV? Basically, there are four stages of HIV according to WHO-

• In the first stage, the patients will be completely asymptomatic. They won’t have any symptoms.
• When they come to the second stage they will develop some minute skin infections like for instance proretipeplamatitions what we call. Patients complain of itching and sometimes the state develops skin reactions. This patient has come up with Herpes reaction. Likewise, some patients might develop skin reactions like if the patient is having herpes which is very common in HIV. So when the patients enter into stage two they will be developing all these kind of skin problems.
• When the patient is not taking any treatment, adequate oral treatment then the patient enters into stage three. In stage three what happens a patient develops a lung infection, they can develop diarrhea, and they can develop loss of weight more than 10percent. They will be having a prolonged fever of more than one month, prolonged diarrhea of one month. Sometimes the patient can develop oral infections like oral candidiasis which is very common in HIV patients. You see this picture the patient is having a severe oral infection in the mouth.
• Likewise, if the patient is not taking any treatment even at this stage the patient enters to stage four for what is we call as AIDS, AIDS stage that is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. In this syndrome the patient will be developing all late complications of HIV like patients can develop severe nemesis pneumonia where the patient will have severe breathlessness, won’t be able to sit comfortably without taking oxygen, supplemental oxygen or the if the patient is developing some abdominal TB, the patient can present with severe abdominal distension and patient can develop severe diarrhea. Likewise, if the patient can develop multiple malignancies like cot skin lymphoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma. These malignancies can affect any part of the body. They are especially a prediction for the brain. Once the patient develops malignancies it’s almost in a very late stage. So by seeing the symptoms also, you can tell what the patient is in. So these are all the symptoms seen in HIV and complications.

So in the next video, we will be talking more about the complications of HIV, how to diagnose HIV and how to treat HIV and what are prevention steps that can be taken to prevent HIV. I am thankful to Lybrate for providing me this opportunity to reach patients all over India.

If you want to contact, you can contact me at Sriniwasa Hospital at Narayanguda. It is beside Deepak Theatre in Hyderabad. You can contact me through Lybrate or my website www.hivaidsclinic.in. Thank you.