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AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most people who are infected with HIV eventually develop AIDS. There may be a small percentage of people with HIV who will never develop AIDS. When people develop AIDS, their immune systems are slowly destroyed. People with AIDS get diseases called opportunistic diseases or infections. The weakened immune system no longer can provide protection from these diseases.
The bad news about HIV is how much it has spread. Over twenty million people in the world have HIV. Many people with HIV have not been tested and do not realise they have the virus. There is good news, however, about new treatments for HIV and AIDS. Many new discoveries are helping people with HIV. There are two classes of medications that are helping people with HIV. They work by keeping the virus from reproducing and spreading. The first class is the reverse transcriptase inhibitors, such as AZT. The second class of medication is the protease inhibitors, which help prevent HIV from reproducing. Using a combination of such medications together can slow the virus down a great deal. However, no one is sure how long it will take people to develop resistance to these medications. There are also medications that are known as prophylactic medications. These medications can help prevent the infected person from getting some of the worst opportunistic infections such as: - different types of pneumonia
- tuberculosis and
- other diseases and infections
Article #4622 Copyright (c) 2002 McKesson. All Rights Reserved. |
