What is HIV infection and how to diagnose it?

Today the question is: "What is HIV?" it sounds a little strange ... Are there really people left who don’t know anything about it (children don’t count)? In addition, for those who are aware of this, for some reason, the concept of "HIV" is associated with the word "AIDS." This is far from the case! Let's put everything in its place:

• we learn what HIV infection is;
• understand what is its difference from AIDS;
• learn how to diagnose it.
  

What is what?

The human immune system deficiency virus (the same HIV) is a general concept of infection. AIDS is already a type of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which was caused by HIV infection. Years will pass before doctors can diagnose the presence of AIDS in humans. In this case, it is said that one or more very serious diseases have developed in his body.

How does this happen?

The mechanism of action is the weakening of the human immune system by HIV infection until opportunistic diseases begin to develop in his body, with which healthy immunity has always coped.

What is HIV for our body?

This is a slow but certain death ... The virus attacks certain cells in the human body, which by their nature must protect it from various infections. Time passes ... The virus still destroys the cells. As a result, the body is no longer able to defend itself against parasites, bacteria, fungi or cancer.

So now we know what HIV infection is and what AIDS is. These are completely different phenomena. The first misfortune is a destroyer of the human immune system, and the second is a complex of various diseases developing against its background.

This, in fact, is the diagnosis of this infection. It is possible to determine whether a person is infected or not by examining his blood. In Russian, you need to take an HIV test. For this, blood is drawn from a vein, after which it / blood / is sent to a special laboratory for analysis. Keep in mind that any primary positive result will necessarily be more accurately double-checked. Indeed, in some cases, the test results are false:

• a person has recently had an acute infection;
• for the simple reason that not a single test gives one hundred percent result.

The usual period during which you can find out the results of your analysis is three days. By the way, in some countries they came up with a saliva sample to diagnose HIV infection . Admittedly, such tests are not as reliable as blood sampling.

This diagnostic method involves using a quick test, donating blood from a finger (and not from a vein) in a venous blood research laboratory. The result will be known in a few minutes. Paradoxically, this testing method gives an instant answer to the question: is there an infection or not, but it cannot immediately determine whether a person is infected ... No, don’t think that this is a frivolous thing! The results of this test are as accurate as with traditional venous blood sampling. The main difference is that this is the so-called "window period". It means the stage when the virus can not yet be detected in the body.

Important! A quick test "sees" only antibodies to HIV infection, but not a virus! Therefore, for the correct result, it is necessary that at least twelve weeks pass from the moment of infection of a person.