World AIDS Day 2021: Symptoms, Transmission And Treatment

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the disease that causes AIDS, has claimed the lives of 36.3 million individuals as of July 17, 2021. By the end of 2020, there were approximately 37.7 million people living with the disease. If these statistics available with the World Health Organization are any indication, HIV/AIDS is one of the most serious public health challenges globally.

In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared December 1 as World AIDS Day. The day provides a chance for people across the world to come together in the battle against the disease, show support to those living with it.

Since stigma — dreading the disease, fear of those who have it, rejection, ostracism, and discrimination — is still a major issue in the fight against AIDS, awareness is critical. The first step towards awareness is to understand the symptoms, modes of transmission, and treatment available.

Symptoms

The symptoms of HIV differ from person to person and also depend on the stage of infection. Though people living with HIV are most infectious in the first few months following infection, many do not realise they are infected until later. People may have no symptoms or an influenza-like sickness, such as fever, headache, rash, or sore throat, in the first few weeks following infection.

Individuals may develop other signs and symptoms — swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, diarrhoea, and cough — when the virus impairs the immune system. They could acquire serious illnesses like tuberculosis (TB), cryptococcal meningitis, bacterial infections, and malignancies such as lymphomas and Kaposi's in the absence of treatment.

The disease can be transmitted in the following ways:

-- Through body fluids from infected people, such as blood, breast milk, semen, and vaginal secretions.

-- From a pregnant mother to the child.

-- By having unprotected sex.

-- Sharing or exchanging needles, syringes, or any other injecting equipment that has been contaminated.

-- While receiving unsafe injections, blood transfusions, or medical procedures that involve unsterile cutting or piercing.

Treatment

HIV attacks the immune system, weakening the body's defences against infections and various cancers that individuals with healthy immune systems can resist.

According to WHO, there is no cure for HIV infection. However, thanks to increased access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, the infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, allowing people with it to live long and healthy lives.

HIV can be managed by treatment with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. Though antiretroviral therapy (ART) does not cure HIV infection, it slows viral replication in the body and allows the immune system to recover and fight off opportunistic infections and some malignancies.

Since 2016, WHO has recommended that all people living with HIV be provided with lifelong ART, including children, adolescents, adults, and pregnant and breastfeeding women.