AIDS is a serious infectious disease in which a transcriptase virus, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV for short), invades the human body and destroys the human immune function, which 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 it is acquired rather than innate in terms of etiology. Immunodeficiency: It means that in terms of pathogenesis, it mainly causes damage to the human immune system, which leads to the reduction and loss of the protective function of the immune system. The common characteristics of immunodeficiency disease are: 1. The susceptibility to infection is obviously increased; 2. It is prone to malignant tumors; 3. The clinical and pathological manifestations are diverse. Syndrome: It refers to a complex symptom group caused by opportunistic infections and tumors of various systems due to immune deficiency in clinical symptoms.
Once the human body is infected with HIV, it will target T4 lymphocytes, which are the most important in the human immune system, and devour and destroy T4 lymphocytes in large quantities, thus destroying the human immune system, causing it to collapse, and finally making the body lose its ability to resist diseases. At this time, various pathogens and microorganisms can invade the human body through blood and broken wounds. And 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 death of the human body.
AIDS has the following characteristics
1. The pathogen of AIDS is a retrovirus. Reproduction ability is very fast
2. HIV does not destroy an organ of human body, but destroys the immune system of human body, thus causing damage to multiple organs. HIV is a virus that is T4-loving lymphocytes (T4 lymphocytes play a central role in the cellular immune system, which can promote B cells to produce antibodies) and neurophiles, destroying human immune system and brain tissue.
3. HIV mutates very quickly. At present, two variants have been identified: Type I and Type II, with 12 subtypes of Type I and 6 subtypes of Type II.
4. The antibody produced by human body infected with HIV has no antibody protection effect on human body. If it is tested positive, it will be infected with HIV.
5. HIV has extremely 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 several hours to several days at room temperature. Sensitive to heat, inactivated at 56 degrees for 3 minutes; Sensitive to many chemicals, such as 75% alcohol, 2.5% sulfotincture, .5% sodium hypochlorite and other common disinfectants, it is inactivated in 1 minute; Not sensitive to ultraviolet rays.
AIDS infection process
There is a complete process from HIV 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 manifestations, but patients at every disease stage can see them clinically.
1. Acute infection period and window period are also at this time. The response caused by HIV to stimulate the body after it attacks the human body. During 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. Generally, the average time is 2-3 months. Although the corresponding antibody cannot be detected, it is still contagious.
2. Incubation period, the infected person may have no clinical symptoms, but the incubation period is not a static period, let alone a safe period. The virus continues to multiply and 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. The average incubation period of AIDS is now considered to be 2-1 years. This has caused great difficulties in early detection of patients and prevention.
3. Before AIDS, symptoms and signs related to AIDS began to appear after the incubation period, until it developed into a typical AIDS. The patient already has the most basic feature of AIDS, that is, cellular immune deficiency, but the symptoms are mild.
4. The typical AIDS period, which some scholars call fatal AIDS, is the final stage of HIV infection. This period has three basic characteristics: severe cellular immune deficiency, various fatal opportunistic infections and various malignant tumors. In the final stage of AIDS, the immune function collapses completely, and patients have various serious comprehensive diseases until they die.
the route of transmission of AIDS
HIV mainly exists in the blood and sexual secretions of patients and asymptomatic infected persons, and there are also a few saliva, tears and milk, all of which are infectious. AIDS is mainly transmitted through three ways, namely:
1. Sexual transmission: through unprotected heterosexual or homosexual sex.
2. Blood transmission: through * * injecting drugs with unsterilized syringes and needles, importing blood or blood products containing HIV, using various unsterilized or poorly sterilized medical instruments (such as needles, acupuncture needles, dental instruments, beauty instruments, etc.), and * * * using shaving knives and toothbrushes.
3. Mother-to-child transmission: The 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 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, and the damaged skin or mucosa (such as inflammation and ulcer of respiratory tract and digestive tract) accidentally touches the blood and sexual secretions of infected people or even saliva and tears through various channels, it is possible to get infected.
AIDS will not spread through air, food (water), ordinary daily contact in public places (such as shaking hands, seats, toilets and bathtubs in public places), paper money, coins, tickets and mosquito bites, and swimming pools will not spread.
how to prevent the spread of AIDS?
From the above, we can see that AIDS can be feared but not terrible. Terrible because it has no effective treatment, medicine and no cure. It's 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, which are equally effective in preventing AIDS:
1. Self-love, keep loyal and single sexual relationship; Use condoms correctly when having dangerous sex; Timely treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
2. Prevention of blood transmission of AIDS. To prevent HIV from being transmitted through blood, we must first take strong social preventive measures, which mainly include the following important aspects:
(1) To ensure the safety of blood and blood products for medical use; It is necessary to further ensure the safety of blood use, advocate citizens to donate blood without compensation, try to reduce or eliminate blood sales, and educate blood donors to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, so as to encourage people with high-risk behaviors not to donate blood.
(2) It is also an important measure to reduce the spread of HIV through blood transfusion to strictly control the indications of blood transfusion, not to use untested blood products and reduce unnecessary 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 infecting medical staff, patients infecting patients and medical staff infecting patients)
(4) Personal preventive behavior is also very important in reducing the risk of HIV infection through blood, and everyone should pay attention to the following issues: 1) Do not 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. The use of 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 women's nutrition, prevent anemia, treat infection, prevent bleeding during pregnancy and postpartum, and reduce unnecessary blood transfusion. Women infected with HIV should avoid pregnancy. If pregnant, AZT or similar drugs should be used during pregnancy, cesarean section should be used for delivery, and breastfeeding should be avoided after delivery. Provide early diagnosis of HIV for newborns after delivery, and check and treat them regularly.
4. Caring for, helping and not discriminating against AIDS patients and HIV-infected people and encouraging them to participate in AIDS prevention and control are important aspects of AIDS prevention and control.
5. The polluted wastes can be incinerated. HIV itself is sensitive to heat and can be inactivated at 6℃ for 6 minutes. Items that need to be reused can be disinfected by boiling or high-pressure steam. Items that are not suitable for boiling can be soaked in glutaraldehyde and 75% alcohol. Bleaching powder, sodium hypochlorite and alcohol are commonly used to disinfect polluted environment and surface. Generally used as a disinfectant for hepatitis B, it can also be used for HIV disinfection.