Communicable Disease Research: HIV

Communicable Disease Research: HIV
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Communicable Disease Research: HIV
Introduction
Infectious diseases are defined as illnesses that can be transferred from one individual to another through contact or exposure. They typically are caused by bacteria or viruses and hence are spread when individuals are exposed to blood products, bites from insects, bodily fluids, and even air. A sum of infectious diseases has been diagnosed or discovered, but not all have treatments available. Furthermore, some have to be reported to the concerned departments of health and government agencies within their outbreak locality. It is critical to understand that four are communicable diseases among the first most common causes of death. Some typically affect individuals living in disaster-affected areas (CDC, n.d). Even so, most will prevail even in well-off communities whenever a single individual is exposed and knowingly or unknowingly infects others. For communicable diseases to be prevented, communities need to ensure that their respective environments are clean, use vaccines if available, and have their health workers train in early identification and treatment. So far, most healthcare systems can manage communicable diseases due to effective environmental health strategies. In this paper, a comprehensive discussion about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is provided. Among the elements considered in the debate include causes, symptoms of the disease, transmission, how social determinants of health aid in developing the disease, and its epidemiological triangle.
HIV
The communicable disease is a virus that typically targets and affects a person's immunity, increasing their chances of acquiring other diseases. HIV can potentially progress to an advanced phase regarded as AIDS (CDC, n.d). Advances made in the medical arena have over time ensured that individuals living with the disease access high-quality care. This means that they rarely will see the development of AIDS because of the increased availability of management treatments. WHO experts hold that the disease is now manageable, and hence most people suffering from it can lead long and healthy lives. Research evidence shows that most nations around the globe sufficiently manage the disease, its prevalence rates still are quite high in the third-world nations (CDC, n.d). The virus typically attacks CD4 cells, T-cell types that function to detect infections in the body alongside anomalies in other cells. They also use the cells to create copies of themselves. As such, the virus destroys the cells and reduces the body's ability to combat other infections.
AIDS
It is worth noting that HIV is one of the few lifelong conditions, but treatments available and some strategies can obscure it from the transmission and also from progressing. As mentioned earlier, AIDS is a consequence of HIV, which manifests when the virus progresses to its advanced stages (CDC, n.d). Physician regard AIDS as a condition which comes about when the count of CD4 cells is lower than 200 per cubic millimeter. It can also be diagnosed if the patient displays signs of some opportunistic infections, cancer, or both. If an individual infected with HIV fails to receive appropriate treatment, AIDS will manifest since the body's immunity will gradually wear down (CDC, n.d). This progression can now be prevented because of the availability of ARV treatment interventions.
Causes
HIV typically is transferred from one person to another when body fluids containing the virus come to contact with those of a healthy individual (CDC, n.d). Transmission can happen through small body breaks or moist body tissues such as those of the genitals. To be specific, HIV is transmitted through semen, blood, virginal and rectal fluids, and even breast milk. While most individuals presume kissing as one of the means through which HIV is transmitted, it should be recognized that the virus cannot survive in saliva. Therefore, the primary cause of HIV transmission in the US is intercourse, either anal or vaginal (CDC, n.d). This happens especially when the individual fails to use protection such as condoms or pre-exposure prophylaxis, an intervention that prevents the virus's transmission among individuals with acknowledged risk factors.
Perhaps the most uncommon modes of transmission are those experienced during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or childbirth. Though possible, medical advances have ensured that a minimal sum of children is infected during birth or the general maternal-dependency period. Other common causes of transmission include sharing tools used for drug abuse, more so when the activities involve injections (CDC, n.d). Blood transfusions once were common causes of transmission, but today, the risks are quite low because all blood donations always are taken through effective screening. HIV can only be transmitted if a certain amount of the virus is present in the blood. This means that transmission cannot happen if a person has undetected levels of the virus (CDC, n.d). Physicians will define the virus as undetectable in the event its amounts in the body are extremely low to the point that it cannot be identified through a blood test. For such a status to be achieved, it is always required that the individual receive ongoing treatment and follow the plan recommended.
Symptoms
In its early stages, some individuals will not show any signs of the disease. This status can be maintained for months and even years after the virus is contracted. Physicians opine that this might partly be because 1 in 7 people in the US with HIV do not know that they have the disease (CDC, n.d). Even though an individual who shows no symptoms will unlikely seek medical help, the risks of transmission still will be high, perhaps higher than when the individual knows about his or her status. Based on this, experts emphasize the need to test regularly so that all individuals are always aware of their HIV status. For the other 80% of infected individuals, flu-like symptoms will be observed in the early periods of development (CDC, n.d). These include fatigue, extreme fever, diarrhea, loss of weight, oral yeast infections, and pneumonia.
Once HIV progresses to AIDS, the body's immunity would severely have been damaged. This means that the individual would highly likely acquire opportunistic infections such as cancer (CDC, n.d). Some symptoms of AIDS include sweats, chills, recurrent fever, chronic diarrhea, persistent fatigue and unusual lesions on the tongue, weakness, loss of weight, and skin rashes. The primary complication that comes about once a person is infected with HIV is the weakening of the immune system and the development of various infections (CDC, n.d). The most common complications include pneumocystis pneumonia, a fungal infection that can lead to severe ailments. Candidiasis and tuberculosis are other commonly reported complications that emerge once a person has HIV.
Common cancers associated with HIV include lymphoma, which begins in the white blood cells whose symptom is a painless swelling ...