Information about AIDS

AIDS is a serious infectious disease, which is caused by a transcriptase virus-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV for short), invades the human body, destroys the immune function of the human body, and finally leads to the death of the infected person. The full medical name of AIDS is "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" (AIDS). From this name, we can know the complete concept of AIDS: acquired: indicating that the etiology is acquired rather than innate. Immunodeficiency: refers to the pathogenesis, which mainly damages the human immune system, leading to the reduction and loss of the protective function of the immune system. The same characteristics of immunodeficiency disease are: 1. Susceptibility to infection increased significantly; 2. It is prone to malignant tumors; 3. The clinical and pathological manifestations are diverse. Syndrome: refers to a complex symptom group caused by opportunistic infections of various systems and tumors caused by immune deficiency in clinical symptoms.

Once the human body is infected with HIV, it will devour and destroy a large number of T4 lymphocytes, which is the most important in the human immune system, thus destroying the human immune system, leading to the collapse of the immune system, and finally making the body lose its disease resistance. At this time, various pathogens and microorganisms can invade the human body through blood and broken wounds. Some abnormal cells in the body, such as cancer cells, can also grow and multiply rapidly and develop into various cancers, thus leading to various functional failures and deaths of the human body.

Aids has the following characteristics

1. The pathogen of AIDS is a retrovirus. The reproductive ability is very fast.

2. HIV does not destroy an organ of the human body, but destroys the immune system of the human body, thus causing damage to multiple organs. HIV is a virus, which is T4 neutrophil (T4 lymphocyte plays a core role in the cellular immune system, which can promote B cells to produce antibodies) and neurophile, destroying human immune system and brain tissue.

3. HIV mutates very quickly. At present, two variants have been identified: type ⅰ and type ⅱ. Type ⅰ has subtype 12, and type ⅱ has subtype 6.

4. The antibodies produced by people infected with HIV have no antibody protection effect on human body. If the test is positive, you will be infected with HIV.

5. HIV has poor survival ability outside the human body, is not resistant to high temperature, has low resistance, is not easy to survive without the human body, and can only survive for a few hours to a few days at room temperature. Sensitive to heat, inactivated at 56 degrees for 30 minutes; Sensitive to a variety of chemicals, such as 75% alcohol, 2.5% sulfur tincture, 0.5% sodium hypochlorite and other commonly used disinfectants, 1 minute inactivation; Not sensitive to ultraviolet rays.

The infection process of AIDS

HIV has a complete process from infection to onset, which is divided into four stages: acute infection period, incubation period, pre-AIDS period and typical AIDS period. Of course, not every infected person will have four stages of performance, but patients at each stage of disease can see it clinically.

1, acute infection period, window period is also at this time. Stimulating response to human body after HIV attacks human body. In acute infection, the symptoms are often mild and easy to be ignored. After 2-6 weeks of infection, the serum HIV antibody can be positive. Since then, a relatively healthy and asymptomatic incubation period has appeared in clinic. The window is also at this time. Window period refers to the period from the time when the body is infected with HIV to the time when corresponding antibodies are produced. The average time is 2-3 months. Although the corresponding antibody can not be detected, it is still contagious.

2, incubation period, the infected person can have no clinical symptoms, but the incubation period is not a static period, not to mention a safe period, and the virus continues to multiply, which has a strong destructive effect. The incubation period refers to the time from HIV infection to the appearance of clinical symptoms and signs of AIDS. It is now considered that the average incubation period of AIDS is 2- 10 years. This has caused great difficulties for early detection and prevention of patients.

3, pre-AIDS, after the incubation period, AIDS-related symptoms and signs began to appear until it developed into a typical AIDS-related period. The patient already has the most basic feature of AIDS, namely cellular immune deficiency, but the symptoms are mild.

The typical AIDS period, called fatal AIDS by some scholars, is the last stage of HIV infection. This period has three basic characteristics: severe cellular immune deficiency, various fatal opportunistic infections and various malignant tumors. At the end of AIDS, the immune function completely collapsed, and patients developed various serious comprehensive diseases until they died.

Spread of AIDS

HIV mainly exists in the blood and sexual secretions of patients and asymptomatic infected persons, and a small amount of saliva, tears and milk is contagious. AIDS is mainly transmitted through three ways, namely:

1. Sexual transmission: transmission through unprotected heterosexual or homosexual sex.

2. Blood transmission: injecting drugs with unsterilized syringes and needles, importing blood or blood products containing HIV, and using unsterilized or poorly sterilized medical instruments (such as needles, acupuncture needles, dental instruments, beauty instruments, etc.). ), * * * Use razors and toothbrushes, etc.

3. Mother-to-child transmission: An infected mother can transmit the virus to the fetus or baby during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Because the blood, sexual secretions, saliva, tears and milk of HIV-infected people are contagious, and HIV itself has a certain viability in nature, it cannot be completely ruled out that it can be spread through daily close contact, especially if the individual's immunity is low, the damaged skin or mucosa (such as inflammation and ulcer of respiratory tract and digestive tract) may be infected by accidental contact with the blood, sexual secretions and even saliva and tears of infected people through various channels.

AIDS will not spread through air, food (water) and ordinary daily contact in public places (such as shaking hands, seats in public places, toilets, bathtubs, etc.). ), paper money, coins, tickets and mosquito bites will not spread in the swimming pool.

How to prevent the spread of AIDS?

As can be seen from the above, AIDS can be feared and not terrible. Terrible because it has no effective treatment, no medicine and no cure. This is not terrible, because there are only three ways to spread AIDS. It won't spread wildly and can be prevented. Generally speaking, the effective way to prevent infectious diseases is to take measures against the sources of infection, transmission routes and susceptible groups, and these measures are equally effective in preventing AIDS:

1. Prevention of sexual transmission of AIDS. Self-love, loyalty and single sexual relationship; Use condoms correctly when having risky sex; Timely treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

2. Prevent the blood transmission of AIDS. To prevent the spread of HIV through blood, we must first take strong social preventive measures, mainly including the following important aspects:

(1) Ensure the safety of medical blood and blood products; It is necessary to further ensure the safety of blood use, advocate citizens to donate blood without compensation, minimize or eliminate blood selling, educate blood donors to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, and encourage people with high-risk behaviors not to donate blood.

(2) Strictly grasp the indications of blood transfusion in medical treatment, do not use untested blood products, and reduce unnecessary blood transfusion, which is also an important measure to reduce the spread of HIV through blood transfusion.

(3) comprehensively strengthen the implementation of measures to prevent hospital infection, and prevent the spread of HIV in medical and health services (including patients infected with medical staff, patients infected with patients, and medical staff infected with patients).

(4) Personal preventive behavior is also very important in reducing the risk of HIV infection through blood. Everyone should pay attention to the following questions: 1) Don't use other people's razors. 2) Don't take drugs in any way, stay away from drugs, especially don't inject drugs with syringes used by others.

3. Prevention of mother-to-child transmission. HIV can be transmitted during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding after the birth of a child. Women infected with HIV should avoid pregnancy, such as induced abortion. Using antiviral drugs before and after delivery can reduce the probability of mother-to-child transmission. Artificial feeding can also reduce the risk of HIV infection. Improve female nutrition, prevent anemia, treat infection, prevent bleeding during pregnancy and postpartum, and reduce unnecessary blood transfusion. Women infected with HIV should avoid pregnancy. If you are pregnant, you should use AZT or similar drugs during pregnancy, give birth by cesarean section, and avoid breastfeeding after delivery. Provide early diagnosis of HIV for newborns after delivery, and check and treat them regularly.

4. Caring, helping, not discriminating against AIDS patients and HIV-infected people and encouraging them to participate in AIDS prevention and treatment are important aspects of AIDS prevention and treatment.

5. The polluted waste can be incinerated. HIV itself is sensitive to heat and can be inactivated at 60℃ for 60 minutes. Items that need to be reused can be disinfected by boiling or high-pressure steam. Items unsuitable for boiling can be soaked in glutaraldehyde and 75% alcohol. Bleaching powder, sodium hypochlorite, alcohol, etc. are often used to disinfect polluted environment and surfaces. It is generally used as a disinfectant for hepatitis B and can also be used for HIV disinfection.