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Know More About HIV Infection And Its Various Stages HIV is an infection that generates more copies in the cells and thereby multiplies, and thereby leads to the incurable stage of AIDS. Umpteen numbers of individuals who gets infected from HIV does not instantly observe that they are infected. HIV infects the cells in the central nervous system and the immune system. The main cell, which HIV infects, is called as the T helper lymphocyte. A great decrease in the amount of T helper cells severely weakens the body immune system. HIV contaminates the T helper cell as it contains the protein CD4 on its shell, which is used by the HIV infection to attach itself with the cell prior to gaining the entry. That is why the T helper cell few times is referred as CD4 lymphocyte. Once the HIV infection founds a way into a cell, it generates more copies of its infection and infects other cells as well. Over the time, HIV infection has lead to serious decrease in the amount of T helper cells available to assist fight disease. The procedure generally takes few years. HIV infection can normally be broken in four different stages: the first stage is the primary infection, second is the clinically asymptomatic stage, the third stage is symptomatic HIV infection and the fourth is progression from HIV to AIDS. I. Primary infection: This phase of HIV infection lasts for several weeks and is accompanied with short flu-like sickness. In about 20% of individuals the symptoms are quite serious to see a physician yet, the identification of HIV infection is commonly missed. In this stage, a large quantity of HIV in immune system and the peripheral blood starts to react to the virus through generating HIV antibodies as well as the cytotoxic lymphocytes. II. Clinically asymptomatic stage: This phase lasts for the average of more than eight years and the name implies, it is free from chief symptoms, though there might be swollen glands. The stage of HIV in peripheral blood comes down to very low levels nevertheless, the individuals may remain infectious and the antibodies in blood ate detectable, thus the antibody test may show a +ve result. Study has shown that the HIV infection is inactive at this stage, but is energetic in the lymph nodes. Test is obtainable to determine the little amount of HIV infection, which escapes the lymph nodes. III. Symptomatic HIV infection: With time, the immune system of the body gets seriously damaged by the HIV infection. This happens due to several reasons. Those are: • The tissues and the lymph nodes gets burnt out or damaged due to years of activity; • HIV transforms and gets more pathogenic, or in other words more varied and stronger, leading to extra T helper cell annihilation; • The body falls short to carry on with the replacing T helper cells, which are lost. As the body’s immune system fall short, so symptoms expand. At first, several symptoms are easygoing, but as the body’s immune system weakens, the symptoms worsen. IV. Progression from HIV to AIDS: As the body’s immune system gets progressively damaged the sicknesses, which occur become increasingly severe leading finally to the AIDS diagnosis. Before doing a final diagnosis for AIDS, the doctor might once again check various symptoms of HIV infection.
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Guy Weber is author of this article on HIV Symptoms. Find more information about AIDS Symptoms here.
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