The following is an excerpt....
BASICS
Description
HIV is a retrovirus that integrates into CD4 T lymphocytes (a critical component of cell mediated immunity), causing cell death and resulting in severe immunodeficiency, opportunistic infections (OI), and malignancies:
- Due to treatment advances, HIV is now a chronic disease.
- The natural history of untreated HIV infection includes viral transmission, acute retroviral syndrome, recovery and seroconversion, asymptomatic chronic HIV infection, and symptomatic HIV infection or AIDS.
- Without antiretroviral treatment, the average patient develops AIDS ~10 years after transmission.
- All HIV-infected persons with CD4 < 200 cells/mm3 or having AIDS defining illnesses are categorized as having AIDS.
Epidemiology
Incidence
- At end of 2008, 33.4 million people were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS worldwide per UNAIDS and WHO ...
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