As of 2009, the main treatment for HIV and AIDS is with anti-retroviral drugs. This treatment aims to lower the HIV viral load (the amount of disease) as much as possible, for as long as it is possible. Other functions of anti-retroviral therapy...
Since the HIV illness came to light, there have been many advances in the treatment for this disease. The different classes of medications fight the infection in different ways. Effective treatment for HIV relies heavily on adherence to the...
Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus that attacks the immune system cells that normally protect individuals from disease. Over time, HIV destroys the immune system, and the body is no longer able to fight off common infections....
Human immunodeficiency virus 1 is the viral infection which leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Antiretrovirals can slow HIV progression to AIDS, reduce the spread of disease and reduce the incidence of opportunistic infections....
AIDS (autoimmune deficiency syndrome) is a condition in which the cells that defend the body called CD4 lymphocytes reach a level of 200 or lower. Symptoms of AIDS include night sweats, a dry cough, blurry vision, shortness of breath, chronic...
Starting medications for HIV can be a lifestyle change. Antiretrovirals are medications used to slow the progression of HIV. There are different classes of drugs that work to stop the virus in different stages of its life cycle. A doctor will...
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, can affect patients' brains, causing AIDS dementia complex. Before HIV progresses into AIDS, the condition is called HIV-associated dementia. The virus affects parts of the brain, such as the basal...
The World Health Organization estimates 25 million people have died worldwide from AIDS. The National Institutes of Health reports advances in medicine and treatment have increased the life expectancy of those with AIDS from 12 years to 24 years...
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was developed as a form of treatment for those diagnosed with retroviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Designed to slow and suppress the spread of...
Acquired immune deficiency disorder (AIDS) is a medical condition caused the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In 2008, AIDS resulted in the deaths of 2 million people worldwide, according to a report published in December 2008 by the World...
HIV is a retrovirus, which means that its genetic material is initially stored in the form of RNA, as opposed to the DNA which human cells use. Antiretroviral therapies, which are used to treat HIV infections, target several different steps in the...
Antiretroviral drugs target human immunodeficiency virus 1 to slow the progression of the HIV to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. As of 2010, the World Health Organization estimates that among the 33.4 million people living with...
The human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, infects many cells of the immune system eventually leading to the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. There is no cure for AIDS; however anti-retroviral treatment markedly reduces the...
A diagnosis of HIV or AIDS will create a wide range of emotional issues, reports AIDS.gov. This disease is complex to handle emotionally and physically. The emotional effects of AIDS can be ongoing throughout treatment of the disease or may be...
In July 2010 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 1 million people in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS. Whereas infection with the human immunodeficiency virus was once untreatable due to lack of effective...
HIV/AIDS continues to be a dreaded killer. According to data from the NIH National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), there are over 1 million people living with the disease in the U.S., with over 53,000 new infections each...
For most HIV patients, the progression of the disease to the advanced stage of AIDS is relatively slow and can take years. The Centers for Disease Control will not classify a person with AIDS until his CD4 count has dropped to less than 200 and he...
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, better known as AIDS was first recognized in 1981, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV. HIV destroys the cells in the...
Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, can take many years to progress to AIDS. At the time of publication, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, but antiretroviral medications mean that some HIV-positive patients can live with the disease for a long...
Neuropathy occurs regularly in HIV infection. According to University of Chicago Center for Peripheral Neuropathy, nerve damage affects nearly a third of patients diagnosed with HIV, and peripheral neuropathy can manifest at early stages of the...
The lesions associated with the classic form of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) primarily affect the arms, hands, legs and feet. While they're normally painless--except when they grow so large that they put pressure on your blood and lymph vessels--they...
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV and AIDS attack a person's immune system and causes them to become sick with opportunistic infections. Treatment can slow the progression of HIV...
Enlarged breast tissue in boys and men is called gynecomastia, and can be an embarrassing condition for the adolescent or adult male. A wide range of factors can cause a male to develop breasts, ranging from underlying illness to hormonal...
Antiretroviral, or AVR, drugs are used to treat retroviruses--most often, the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which can eventually lead to the failure of the immune system, called auto-immune deficiency syndrome, also known as AIDS. There...
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a serious problem because it infects and kills special white blood cells called CD4 cells. These cells are important in fighting many kinds of infections. As HIV progresses it can cause a condition known as...
The University of California, San Francisco writes that HIV antiviral medications help maintain the general health of the immune system. However, these drugs are not without side effects. Avert.Org explains that side effects vary from person to...
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), since the start of the Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic in 1981, nearly 600,000 people have died of the infection in the United States. The virus causes...
Retroviruses are a family of viruses characterized by the presence of RNA genetic material and a special enzymatic protein known as reverse transcriptase. The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is the most clinically significant human...
The human immunodeficiency virus infection cripples the immune system of the body, leading to the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the number of people living with...