AIDS: Effects on the Immune System - Research Paper Example

AIDS: Affects on the Immune System What Are AIDS? Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is a disease that effects the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV (Fee & Fox, 1991). AIDS is a life-threatening disease, as the immune system becomes incapable of fighting off illnesses and other potentially deadly diseases. Roughly 39.5 million people have AIDS throughout the world; while the growth of the disease has slowed down in some countries, in other countries, such as poor, third world countries, the disease is spreading as rapidly as ever (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2008). Symptoms Symptoms of AIDS are categorized in stages based on how advanced the disease has become in the body. The first category is when the infection is young and hardly noticeable in the body. Some people may not even develop symptoms, and those that do will only experience symptoms similar to the flu. Fever, sore throat, a rash, and headaches are the most common symptoms of this stage, and they usually develop roughly four weeks after the person has become infected. People with AIDS, regardless of whether or not they are experiencing symptoms, can still pass the virus on to someone else during this initial stage. The second stage of symptoms can take place almost nine or more years after being affected; some people do not even show the minor symptoms prior to this time. “As the virus continues to multiply and destroy immune cells, the patient may develop mild infections or chronic symptoms (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2008)” such as weight loss, diarrhea, a constant cough or shortness of breath, and swollen lymph nodes, which is one of the first and major signs of an HIV infection. Ten years or more after the infection has been developed, the patient begins to experience more harsher symptoms, such as opportunistic infections, which are infections, such as pneumonia or cancer, that the immune system would normally be able to fight off or keep at bay. A decrease of CD4 lymphocyte is another symptom; if the patient has two hundred or less, when the normal count is from eight hundred to twelve hundred. By the time AIDS has fully developed in the body, symptoms begin to increase in intensity and duration. Blurred or distorted vision, white spots or lesions on the tongue or in the mouth, night sweats or chills, and noticeable weight loss. As the disease progresses, the patient can also experience fatigue and an increase in the swelling of lymph nodes for an extended period of time. Affects on the Immune System AIDS, as well as other forms of HIV, targets the immune system within a person. Simple, common diseases that the body would normally be able to fight off, such as the common cold or the flu, present the same danger to a person with AIDS that cancer would present to someone without the disease. The immune system becomes so weak that it becomes unable to fight off any disease that may threaten the body. A person that has AIDS may not be consumed with just AIDS, but with other life-threatening diseases as well. When the immune system is as weak as it is when a person has AIDS, cancers and illnesses that target the throat, chest, or mouth can develop without the slightest sign of resistance from the body. Causes The immune system that helps to protect a person’s body consists of white blood cells and antibodies that go after foreign organisms that enter the body that could cause other diseases or illnesses; these white blood cells are CD4 lymphocytes (Gilden & Kort, 2009). These white blood cells are also the primary targets for HIV. Once the HIV virus has attached itself to these cells, it enters to cells and inserts its own genetic material. One by one, the white blood cells become copies of the HIV virus cells. Other cells in the body, such as the white blood cells that were able to avoid being copied as HIV, die off from the attack on the body. As these new virus cells break from their host cells, they look for more cells to attack, eventually nearly shutting down the entire immune system. AIDS can be transmitted in many ways, with the most common way being sexually. A person can only be infected if the blood, semen, or vaginal secretions from an infected person enters the body of someone who is not infected. Someone who already has contracted a sexually transmitted disease has an increased chance at developing HIV or AIDS if they have sex with someone who also has the disease or another form of sexually transmitted disease. A person can develop AIDS through blood infusions if the blood they have received is infected. However, for many years hospitals have screened and tested the blood before it is put into another body. Needle sharing or being stuck accidentally with a needle that has been used in infected blood can also pass on the disease; needle sharing is often associated with drug use, while being accidentally stuck with a needle is more associated with health care professionals, though this likelihood decreases each year. Organ or tissue transplants are other methods in which a person can develop AIDS, but these are extremely rare cases. Mothers passing on AIDS to their children is, unfortunately, very common. On a yearly basis, roughly six hundred thousand infants are infected with the AIDS virus, either during pregnancy or by being breast-fed by a mother who has the virus. It has been proven that if women received treatment for their AIDS during pregnancy, their children have a less chance of developing it themselves. Pathophysiology The HIV virus needs to develop before AIDS can develop; essentially, HIV turns into the AIDS virus, if not another form of disease, usually those that have been sexually transmitted. HIV causes AIDS by destroying the cells that are linked to the immune system, therefore targeting the cells of the body that can help fight off infections and cancerous cells. In the first phase, white blood cells are taken over by the HIV virus and are killed, causing damage to the immune system (Shankar et al, 2007). In the second phase, these HIV-filled cells begin to kill off other cells, as well as not killing off the foreign cells that would normally be targeted by the white blood cells. The virus spreads through the body as the normal cells are taken over by the HIV/AIDS cells. While the symptoms of of immune deficiency in regard to AIDS do not appear for many years after the developing of the disease, the body still feels its effects, and the white blood cells are taken over rather rapidly. In essence, the AIDS virus attacks the cells that, were it another virus, would easily be destroyed by those white blood cells. The AIDS virus kills off the only things that could take down most diseases. In the end, AIDS renders the body helpless at fighting off even the slightest infection and the most grievous disease. The diseases developed by a lack of an immune system only weaken the body further. Treatment While there is no cure for AIDS or a medication that can slowly deplete the disease, there are methods that can help slow down the growth of the disease in the body. Medications have been created that can help extend the life of a person with AIDS by slowing the progression of the virus. This can be done through three or more of the medications known as anti-retroviral drugs, which, when taken properly, can inhibit the growth and replication of the HIV/AIDS virus cells. These medications are inhibitors, meaning that they protect the cells from being injected with the genetic material from the AIDS virus, so that it cannot continue to spread. Unfortunately, while these medications can help a person avoid the AIDS virus from fully taking over their immune system, the person also has the chance at becoming immune to the effects of the medication, especially if the medication has been taken for an increased number of years. In these cases, the person is put on another assortment of medications that fulfill the same purpose as the original medication. In the present time, other methods of treatment are being created to help those that have become immune to the first methods of treatment. Prevention For people that are HIV-negative, it is important that they educate themselves and others about what AIDS are and how they are transmitted. Furthermore, they should know the HIV/AIDS status of any person that they make sexual contact with; if they are unsure of whether or not the person is positive or negative, they need to take any means necessary to protect themselves, such as wearing a condom while having sexual intercourse (Fan et al, 2003). People can also avoid the AIDS virus by using clean needles and being cautious about blood supply products in other countries. The United States screens the blood that it uses for transfusions and other related processes, though this does not hold true for other countries. For those that are HIV-positive, safe-sex should be practiced to not only avoid transmitting the disease to someone else, but to protect themselves from exacerbating their own disease. Someone with HIV/AIDS also needs to inform their sexual partners about their disease, especially if the sexual partner is or becomes pregnant. They can avoid transmitting the disease to others by not sharing needles, donating blood or organs, or by not sharing toothbrushes or other objects that make contact with body fluid. Pregnant mothers can avoid passing the virus onto their children by taken medication during pregnancy, have a cesarean delivery instead of vaginal birth, and by not breast-feeding. Works Cited Fan, Hung, Conner, Ross F., & Villarreal, Luis P. AIDS: Science and Society. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, 2003. Fee, Elizabeth & Fox, Daniel M. Aids. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. Gilden, David & Kort, Rodney. “International AIDS Conference: From Evidence to Action - Basic Science.” Journal of the International AIDS Society 12.1 (2009): 1-6. Print. Mayo Clinic Staff. “HIV/AIDS.” MayoClinic.com. The Mayo Clinic, 9 Aug. 2008. Web. Retrieved 18 April 2010. Shankar, Esaki, Vignesh, Ramachandran & Solomon, Suniti. “Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome in Association with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis: Views Over Hidden Possibilities.” AIDS Research and Therapy 4.29 (2007). Print. Read More