HIV

A Brief History of HIV

In 1983, people knew that there was a terrible new virus spreading around the community. However, it was in this year that French scientists were first able to isolate the particular virus. To find out more about the pandemic, click here.

What is HIV?

HIV is short for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This virus targets cells involved in the immune systems, eventually causing a disease known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. The virus eventually makes the immune system unable to fight off diseases and infection that it would normally be able to, and this is what usually leads to the death of a patient.

There are 2 types of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is much more common than HIV-2, and HIV-2 is only present in some countries in Africa and Southern Asia.

HIV works by attaching itself to a type of cell containing the CD4 molecule, which is often a type of cell known as a T cell. The virus attaches to the CD4 molecule as well as the co-receptor, and is then able to infect its RNA into the cell's DNA. When the cell then tries to fight off a new disease, it will also release more new viruses. The virus can easily spread around the immune cells using this method.

This leads to the acute stage of the disease, which can last around 12 weeks.

HIV is a sexually transmitted virus, and is most common in male to male transmission, followed by male to female. Other methods of transmission are through intravenous drug abuse and mother to child, either during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Symptoms

In the acute phase of HIV infection, patients usually develop flu-like symptoms. In the chronic phase, symptoms are not usually as severe, apart from the degeneration of the immune system. By the time that HIV is considered to have evolved into AIDS, the symptoms can vary. Specifically, AIDS has no symptoms, as it just means that you are more susceptible to disease. Many patients with AIDS can often contract pneumonia and related infections.

Vaccines

There is currently, at the time of writing, no vaccine for HIV. Scientists have been working since the virus emerged to develop one, but with no outcome yet.