Treatment
At this time, there is no cure for AIDS, but medications are effective in fighting HIV and its complications. Treatments are designed to reduce HIV in your body, keep your immune system as healthy as possible and decrease the complications you may develop.
You and your doctor will work together to develop a treatment plan that best meets your needs. Three main factors will be considered when designing your treatment plan:
Your willingness and readiness to begin therapy
The stage of your disease
Other health problems
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a number of drugs for treating HIV and AIDS. See our patient education information on AIDS medications and their side effects.
It's important that you take your medications exactly as prescribed. This is crucial to your treatment success. Our program offers pharmacy services to help you maintain your drug regimen and to answer any questions you may have.
Most medications have side effects, which your doctor will discuss with you. Individuals respond differently to medications and side effects may vary. Positive Health Practice doctors, nurses and pharmacists can help you manage these side effects.
Signs and Symptoms
Even if you don't experience HIV symptoms, the virus is actively multiplying, infecting and killing cells of the immune system — CD4+T cells, which are the immune system's key infection fighters. As soon as HIV enters the body, it begins to disable or destroy these cells, often without causing symptoms.
HIV is not spread through casual contact such as sharing food, utensils, towels, bedding, swimming pools, telephones or toilet seats. HIV also is not spread by insects, such as mosquitoes or bedbugs.
HIV can be spread by:
Blood transfusions with HIV-infected blood. This is rare since all donated blood is tested for HIV.
HIV-contaminated needles.
Sexual contact, especially intercourse or anal sex.
A mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding
In rare instances, HIV can be spread by:
A bite by someone infected with HIV.
Blood from an HIV-infected person entering an open wound.
Sharing personal hygiene items, such as razors and toothbrushes, with a person infected with HIV
Sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, genital herpes, chlamydia or gonorrhea appear to increase the susceptibility of getting HIV during sex with infected partners.
Many people don't have any symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some have a flu-like illness, called HIV sero-conversion syndrome, a month or two after exposure to the virus. This illness may cause a variety of symptoms including:
Diarrhea
Enlarged liver or spleen
Fever
Enlarged or swollen lymph nodes
Headache
Muscle pain
Nausea and vomiting
Neurologic symptoms
Rash on the abdomen, arms and legs and face
Sore throat
Thrush, a common fungal infection of the mouth caused by Candida, a yeast-like fungus
These symptoms usually disappear in a week to a month and may be mistaken for other viral infections. During this period, people are very infectious and HIV is present in large quantities in genital fluids.
An infected person may not experience severe symptoms for eight to 10 years or more. This period — called the asymptomatic period — varies in length for each person. Some people may have symptoms within a few months and others may be symptom-free for years.
Children born with HIV usually have symptoms within two years of birth. Children may grow slowly or become sick frequently.
As the immune system weakens, other complications may occur. For many people, the first signs of infection are large lymph nodes or swollen glands that may be enlarged for more than three months. Other symptoms before the onset of AIDS include:
Fevers and sweats
Herpes infections that cause severe mouth, genital or anal sores
Lack of energy
Pelvic inflammatory disease in women that does not respond to treatment
Persistent skin rashes or flaky skin
Shingles, a painful nerve disease often accompanied by a rash or blisters
Short-term memory loss
Weight loss
Diagnosis
Blood tests are the most common way to diagnose HIV. These tests look for antibodies to the virus that the body creates in an attempt to fight the virus. People exposed to the virus should get tested immediately, although it can take the body anywhere from six weeks to a year to develop antibodies to the virus. Follow-up tests may be needed depending on the initial time of exposure.
Early testing is crucial. If you test positive for the virus, you and your doctor will discuss and develop a treatment plan that can help fight HIV and ward off complications. Early testing also can alert you to avoid high-risk behavior that can spread the virus to others.
Most health care providers offer HIV testing, often with appropriate counseling. Anonymous and free testing also is available. During testing, your doctor will ask about your symptoms, medical history and risk factors, and perform a physical examination.
See more information on tests for HIV and AIDS.
HIV/AIDS
Tests for HIV and AIDS
Blood tests are the most common way to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). These tests look for antibodies to the virus that are present in the blood of infected individuals. People exposed to the virus should get tested immediately.
Early testing is crucial with HIV. If you test positive for the virus, you and your doctor can develop a treatment plan to help fight HIV and ward off complications. Early testing also can alert you to avoid high-risk behavior that could spread the virus to others.
Because it can take from six weeks to a year to develop antibodies to the virus, follow-up tests may be needed. Your doctor will ask about your symptoms, medical history and risk factors and perform a physical examination.
The primary tests for diagnosing HIV and AIDs include:
ELISA Test — ELISA, which stands for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, is used to detect HIV infection. If an ELISA test is positive, the Western blot test is usually administered to confirm the diagnosis. If an ELISA test is negative, but you think you may have HIV, you should be tested again in one to three months. ELISA is quite sensitive in chronic HIV infection, but because antibodies aren't produced immediately upon infection, you may test negative during a "window" of a few weeks to a few months after being infected. Even though your test result may be negative during this window, you may have a high level of the virus and be at risk of transmitting infection.
Home Tests — The only home test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is called the Home Access Express Test, which is sold in pharmacies.
Saliva Tests — A cotton pad is used to obtain saliva from the inside of your cheek. The pad is placed in a vial and submitted to a laboratory for testing. Results are available in three days. Positive results should be confirmed with a blood test.
Viral Load Test — This test measures the amount of HIV in your blood. Generally, it's used to monitor treatment progress or detect early HIV infection. Three technologies measure HIV viral load in the blood — reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), branched DNA (bDNA) and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification assay (NASBA). The basic principles of these tests are similar. HIV is detected using DNA sequences that bind specifically to those in the virus. It is important to note that results may vary between tests.
Western Blot — This is a very sensitive blood test used to confirm a positive ELISA test result.
Other Tests
If you're infected with HIV, additional blood tests may be ordered to check for other infections. Tests may be administered to check the effects of medications on your liver and kidneys and other organs. Other common tests include:
CD4+T Cell Count — As soon as HIV enters the body, it begins to destroy or disable your bodys CD4+T cells, the immune system's key infection fighters. The CD4+T cell count is a blood test that measures the number of CD4+T cells and helps assess the immune system's health. The CD4+T cell count correlates with a person's risk of developing opportunistic infections and is a useful marker for HIV disease staging and treatment planning. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends CD4+T testing every three to six months in all HIV-infected patients, though the need may vary by individual.
HIV Resistance Testing — Resistance to anti-retroviral drugs is fairly common in some HIV-positive patients. Resistance testing can be useful to determine the drugs not to use in a patient with increasing levels of the virus despite therapy or in a previously untreated individual who may have been infected with a virus that is resistant to one or more of the HIV drugs.
