Review : I was SHOCKED to see a review on aids stating that there is no relation between HIVand AIDS. And more so how did MS allowed such a review to be published. Its wriiten in 2002 and I dont how many people might have read it and got fooled.
HIV is virus . Human Immuno Virus ........ and Aids is the last stage of infection from hiv Person infected with hiv doesnot have aids just at the onset. Contrary to popular belief. Aquired Immuno defficiency Syndrome-a fatal illnes caused by retrivirus hiv, which destroys the immunesystem of the body making the victim vulnerable to a host of life threatening oppurtunistic infections, neurological disorders or unusual malignancies
the review states that doctors give azt toa aids pt. And its a killer drug.Firstly AZT is Zidovudine. And its an Antiretroviral drug. Its not a killer .Azt does not cure the patient , but it increases the life span of the patient and decreases viral titre and there is general sense of well bieng among patient.it cannot kill the virus so post exposure use is useless.
The review also that people with tb, malaria give postive test. Firstly testing in india is voluntary. even if the patient gives negative the patient is not free from the disease.This is because aids has a window period of six weeks -6mnths within which no antibodies are detected though infection is present. A person has to go through 3 tests to be declared positive And acc to national aids control policy 2002. there is pre an post test counselling.
Common test employed are screening and confirmatory. Most widely used test is Elisa--- simple , inexpensive but there are a number of wrong diagnosis. Some who do not have infection are given positive ant vice versa Confirmatory tests like Western Blot are employed commonly.and even absolute cd4 Actually nobody can force you into a test
What virus does is affects the immunity of the body .Thus it makes us more susceptible to infections like tb, candiosis, herpes...etc These infections are called oppurtunistic infections.and death is due to uncontroled or untreartable infection.
Aids is spread throuh sxual contact - anal vginal.
Blood contact- blood transfusion, needle sharing...
Mother to child - this happens only in1/3 rd of the child born to hiv +tv mothers.
Though there is no proof that hiv can spread from mother to child from milk feeding it is avoided. But in India as the incidence and prevelance of malnutrition is high. It is rather not advisable to stop feeding mothers milk if the economic conditions are not very good.
There are drugs like nevirapine which can prevent spread from mother to child. Post exposure treatment is also present, and is effective if started within hours of exposure.This is used for health workers against accidental exposure.