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Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) annually causes millions of deaths among infected individuals from the complications of other infections and diseases. HIV is a retrovirus that has a spherical capsid structure, which is enclosed with a lipid bilayer where glycoproteins involved in binding and entering the cells of the host are embedded (Jha et al., 2022). The disease this pathogen causes is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which eventually destroys a patients immune system (Laksemi et al., 2020). If left untreated, AIDS is deadly, but even with the available anti-retroviral (ART) therapy, the infected individuals life expectancy is shorter than in healthy people (Parekh et al., 2019). It is transmitted via heterosexual contact, men having sex with men, injection drug use, and from mother to fetus (Wong et al., 2018). This disease caused more than 32 million death globally, and approximately 38 million people had HIV/AIDS in 2018 (Jha et al., 2022, p. 307). HIV/AIDS is still considered an emerging disease even if it was discovered more than thirty years ago. As it is seen from the abovementioned statistics its geographic range and incidence continue to rise.
When a person gets HIV, one initially develops flu-like symptoms, and the virus is not even detectable, but later, when the immune system is weakened due to viral replication, a person may develop opportunistic infections. Since HIV has the tropism primarily to CD4+ T-cells, the number of these cells drops significantly, causing an immunocompromised state in the host (Jha et al., 2022). This condition results in the activation of opportunistic pathogens cause various illnesses in AIDS patients. These infections include Cryptosporidium parvum, Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptococcus neoformans, and many others (Laksemi et al., 2020). Furthermore, individuals with AIDS suffer from severe illnesses, including various cancers caused by herpesviruses that typically remain latent (Laksemi et al., 2020). The clinical presentation of many of these pathogens includes anorexia, weight loss, gastrointestinal problems, and fatigue (Laksemi et al., 2020). The supportive treatment for these patients is ART therapy, which suppresses viral replication (Parekh et al., 2019). However, it is not a curative approach because it cannot eradicate the viral genome inserted in the hosts DNA. Therefore, it is crucial to prevent infection with physical barriers during sexual intercourse and by avoiding needle-sharing.
References
Jha, V., Rustagi, K., Gharat, K., Sonawane, N., Rathod, M., Patel, R., Devkar, S., Damapurkar, V., & Kaur, N. (2022). Human immunodeficiency virus type 1: Role of proteins in the context of viral life cycle. Journal of Advanced Biotechnology and Experimental Therapeutics, 5(2), 307-319.
Laksemi, D. A., Suwanti, L. T., Mufasirin, M., Suastika, K., & Sudarmaja, M. (2020). Opportunistic parasitic infections in patients with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: A review. Veterinary World, 13(4), 716-725.
Parekh, B. S., Ou, C. Y., Fonjungo, P. N., Kalou, M. B., Rottinghaus, E., Puren, A., Alexander, H., Cox, M. H., & Nkengasong, J. N. (2019). Diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus infection. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 32(1), 1-55.
Wong, C., Gange, S. J., Moore, R. D., Justice, A. C., Buchacz, K., Abraham, A. G., Rebeiro, P. F., Koethe, J. R., Martin, J. N., Horberg, M. A., Boyd, C. M., Kitahata, M. M., Crane, H. M., Gebo, K. A., Gill, M. J., Silverberg, M. J., Palella, F. J., Patel, P., Samji, H., Thorne, J., Rabkin, C. S., Mayor, A., & Althoff, K. N. (2018). Multimorbidity among persons living with human immunodeficiency virus in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 66(8), 1230-1238.
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