HIV: What Exactly Is It?

And to make this treatment accessible on a global scale. Just because something is available does not mean it is accessible.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus that attacks the body’s population of CD4 cells, or T cells. These cells are essential in fighting off disease and infections, and HIV kills off the population of these cells to make copies of itself. Though there is no known or accepted cure to HIV right now, the disease can be treated with ant-retroviral therapy.  This type of medication is required daily to allow those afflicted with HIV to live normal, happy lives. If left untreated, HIV can develop into Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. AIDS is the final and last stage of the HIV disease, and not everybody reaches this stage of infection when provided the appropriate treatment. When the population of CD4 cells falls below a count of 200 cells per cubic millimeter in the human body, or when diagnosed with one or more opportunistic infections, HIV has reached the level of AIDS. 

There are sometimes no symptoms to HIV, so it’s important that those who are sexually active get tested frequently. Sometimes, within 2 to 4 weeks of exposure to the disease, people will experience the “worst flu ever” including symptoms of fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, rash, fatigue, muscle pain, and severe headaches. Again, if left untreated, the infection will progress to AIDS and the symptoms will worsen to ones of rapid weight loss, recurring fever, extreme fatigue, diarrhea, bodily sores, pneumonia, purplish lesions all over the body, memory loss, and even depression. These symptoms are largely due to the opportunistic infections that occur alongside AIDS.

Currently, there are approximately 1.2 million people residing in the U.S. living with HIV and approximately 35 million people living with the infection globally. Apparently, 19 million out of the 35 million infected are unaware that they have HIV - a large statistic considering that the number is more than half of the HIV population. According to WHO, sub-Saharan Africa is the most largely affected, with approximately 24.7 million people infected with the virus, which is about 71% of the entire global HIV population.

To see change, we must cultivate a global awareness of HIV/AIDS, the ins and outs of its treatment, and the necessity for global accessibility to treatment. It is unacceptable for HIV to progress to AIDS with the availability of such anti-retroviral therapies and medicines that can stabilize a healthier T cell count in the body. We need to make use of this availability and create accessibility out of it as well.