Protect Yourself Against the Dreaded HIV and AIDS
AIDS and HIV are global concerns that need to be understood by every individual. Deaths are approximately 25 million around the world.
AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is the late and final stage of HIV. An individual diagnosed with AIDS has a count of CD4 or T cells under 200 cells per cubic milliliter. HIV attacks, gradually weakens and eventually destroys the immune system, making the body susceptible to infections. HIV- AIDS is a deadly disease that can be prevented and can be handled properly by enough knowledge about the virus. Simple bacterial infections and viruses normally eliminated by prescribed medicines can result to death to persons with HIV.
HIV or AIDS can be prevented by observing and being adherent to several things. To start off, practice safe sex. Abstain from sexual activity if it can be helped. Don’t use injected drugs; use sterile syringe and never share needles. Use protection when handling somebody else’s blood.
For women with the virus who wants to have a child, she must first seek experts’ advice. It might be dangerous for her to conceive if she is carrying the virus. It is possible that the virus will be transferred to the child during pregnancy. And mothers with HIV must not breastfeed.
AIDS is still incurable up to this day but some treatments can take care of the symptoms and can prolong the life of the persons infected with the disease. ART or antiretroviral therapy controls the proliferation of the virus inside the bodies of affected people. HAART or highly active ART can decrease particles of HIV in the system of HIV victims. The immune system and T-cells count can be improved by suppressing the replication of HIV in the infected person’s body.
Persons with HIV may show no symptoms for more than 10 years. Full- blown AIDS may occur if the infection is not diagnosed and be given treatment. Some people with HIV do not develop AIDS and the virus is kept from replicating. Record shows that T-cells can be maintained above 200.
With time, HIV will cease to react to drugs in infected persons who are not taking them as scheduled. Other treatments must be employed to control the spread of the virus in the system of the persons with HIV when resistance to HAART is already determined.
Some symptoms include fever, night sweats and respiratory problems. Others may also experience frequent gastrointestinal system problems, skin rashes, and purplish wounds in the mouth or skin.
Tiny bruises take longer time to mend. There is observed low energy levels, rapid loss of weight, depression, forgetfulness and numbness.
The HIV virus can be transferred in various ways, like through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, or passed on to an unborn child if the pregnant woman is infected with it.
Some rare modes of transmission are needle injury, and sperm/ organ donation from infected individuals. To eliminate the danger of getting blood and organs from infected donors, a strict blood and tissue screening has been implemented by blood banks and programs for organ donation. Keep in mind that HIV can not be transmitted by hugging, sports participation, mosquito bites, or by direct contact with things just used by a person with HIV.
High risk groups include those drug addicts who use the same needle in injecting intravenous drugs. So are the babies born to infected mothers who do not undergo therapy while they were pregnant. Promiscuous people who do not practice safe sex are also at a high risk. Lastly, those blood recipients from 1977 to 1985 (before the standard testing for HIV started) are also at a high risk.
World Health Organization estimated that there are 33 million individuals with HIV are living worldwide. 30 million of them are in less developed and developing countries. At least 10 million need Antiretroviral Therapy but sadly, only 3 million had access to ART. These estimates were made last December.
WHO are helping member states in fighting and preventing the spread of HIV by giving them technical support in medical treatments and also the right to diagnostics and medicines to ascertain an effective and continuous reaction to the AIDS.
HIV testing in pregnant women must be done if the risk is high; antiviral therapy lowers the possibility of transmitting the virus to the infants and the mother’s health can be better. The therapy must be administered early to be effective.
Watch a video related to rapid hiv testing
Senator Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) sets example for all by administrating a rapid oral HIV test. Tom Donohue, Founder and Executive Director of Who’s Positive speaks at PA State Capitol
Comments and questions related to rapid hiv testing
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runforthehills Said,
February 12, 2009 @ 1:07 am
1. The negative predictive value is not just a function of its sensitivity, it is also a function of the the actual rate of HIV infection in the population you are testing. The sensitivity of the SUDS test is 99.4%, but the negative predicitive value depends on whether you're testing a high prevalence or low prevalence population.
Let me illustrate:
Leaving specificty aside for a moment,
If you test 1 million people, 1% of whom actually have HIV, you would expect 990,000 negative tests. However a test with 99.4% sensititivity will miss 60 out of 10,000 that should have been positive. That means 60 out of 990,060 negative tests were wrong – there is a 0.00606% chance (roughly 1 in 16,000) a negative is a false negative.
If 100% of your million population have HIV you would expect 0 negative tests. However the test misses 0.6% of true positives, so in fact you would get 6,000 (false) negatives – and there is a 100% (1 in 1) chance that any negative is a false negative. This is why you need to know the background prevalence of a condition before you can interpret the chances that any given negative test is a true or false negative.
If the true prevalence of what your testing for is 0.3% (as is HIV in the US population) a test with 99.4% sensitivity will result in 1 in 55,000 negatives being false negatives.
Of course no test is totally specific either – there will be fewer negatives because some will be false positives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_predictive_value
2. Yes. All screening tests for HIV sacrifice specificity to maximise sensitivity. This is why a diagnosis should not be made on a positive screening test alone. You need a two step algorhythm for adequate specificty in most populations.
3. Not quite: it is the ELISA plus WB (the two step algorhythm) which provides the specificity, not just the WB alone.
4. No it's not the same, but they are believed to have comparable accuracy.