TRANSCRIPTION – WHEN HIV BECOMES AIDS

This year in the United States, 42,000 people will become infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
AIDS is an incurable disease that is the end result of infection by the human immunodeficiency
virus, or HIV. An individual who contracts HIV may become sick quickly - or can live symptom-free
for years. HIV and AIDS are not one and the same. Those with AIDS are infected with HIV, but people
infected with HIV do not necessarily have AIDS. A person has AIDS when their T-cell count falls
below a measurement scale of 200, as opposed to the 500 to 1,500 in a healthy person. An extremely
low CD4 count means that a person's immune system is no longer healthy enough to fight off
intruding viruses and bacteria. Signs that HIV may be turning into AIDS include: extreme fatigue,
rapid weight loss, persistent diarrhoea, a high fever, and swollen glands in the neck, armpits, or
groin. Even if a person doesn't have a low CD4 count, they are still classified as having AIDS if
they contract any one of 26 opportunistic conditions. These are a group of illnesses that don't
generally occur in people with functioning immune systems, but do show up in AIDS patients. Two of
these are cancers. One, Kaposi's sarcoma, results from a tumor in the blood vessel walls, and
appears as disfiguring pink or purple lesions on the skin and mouth. The other cancer,
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, originates in the disease-fighting blood cells known as lymphocytes. This
appears as swelling of the lymph nodes. Several opportunistic conditions that confirm an AIDS
diagnosis stem from invading bacteria, like tuberculosis and recurrent bacterial pneumonia.
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia is a potentially deadly inflammation of the lungs that is one of the
most common infections occurring in people with HIV worldwide. Tuberculosis is the leading
opportunistic infection in nations where access to medications is low. It occurs when bacteria
infect the lungs and can manifest as coughing with bloody mucus. Sometimes, an opportunistic
infection can be fungal, like candidiasis. When candidiasis causes a white coating to form on the
mouth, tongue, or vagina, this is called thrush. Although HIV itself is a virus, another virus can
enter the body and cause an opportunistic infection. One example is cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a
herpes virus that healthy adults fight easily. In people with HIV, however, the virus causes
damages to the body, most notably the eyes. If untreated, CMV can lead to blindness. Other
complications that lead to an AIDS diagnosis include wasting syndrome, whereby a person loses at
least 10 percent of their body weight, and AIDS dementia complex, where nerve cell damage causes
diminished mental functioning. These conditions, and others, mean that HIV has progressed to AIDS.
While this is disheartening, many modern medications can keep AIDS infections from progressing
indefinitely. If you have HIV, talk to your doctor about diseases that can occur following
infection and the best ways to treat them. Want to learn more? Check out other videos and sources
on this site for more information.