Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was identified back in 1981 with the help of a group of scientists from America. The most correct name for the disease, which is popularly classified as AIDS, is HIV infection. This disease is awakened by a virus that was studied back in 1983 in the company of American and French researchers. The HIV virus is very difficult to treat, or rather, almost incurable, so the problem of combating this ailment has been going on for a long time. We will try to tell all about HIV infection in this article. What it is? How does the infection spread? How long does the HIV virus live in the environment? Is it possible to get infected in domestic conditions?
All About HIV
HIV is an immune deficiency virus that directly affects the body’s immune system. When it is unstable, protection against external parasites that constantly attack the body disappears. In the absence of an immune response, other infectious diseases easily develop in the body. People with HIV infection become as sensitive as possible to the most basic colds and even to those microorganisms that do not do any harm to an uninfected person. The person whose blood contains the HIV virus is called HIV-infected or HIV-positive. This infection belongs to the family of retroviruses.
If HIV infection has occurred, this does not mean that the person has AIDS. From infection to the stage of development of this terrible disease, a long period of time passes, about 10-12 years. How long does the HIV virus live in the environment? This will be discussed further.
Immune System Impact
The body's immune system is designed to protect it from foreign organisms that pose a potential biological threat to human life. They are not part of the human body, therefore, when penetrated, they cause a certain (protective) reaction of the immune system: nausea, vomiting, fever and more. All such symptoms will accompany a person at a time when the immune system is trying to overcome a foreign microorganism. Various viruses, colds, bacteria, fungi, staphylococci, donor material or internal organs are all antigens.
The components of the immune system include some organs: the thymus, bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen, thyroid gland, as well as cells of lymphocytes, monocytes and macrophages. In HIV infection, the most important role is played by T cells (lymphocytes), which recognize this and other viruses in the body. They accelerate their regenerative properties and induce other elements of the immune system to fight and suppress viruses, including HIV. It is the HIV virus that destroys lymphocytes, brain cells, intestines and lungs. This violates the protective properties of the immune system, and soon completely destroys it.
Quite often, a virus that has entered the body can live there for 1 to 5 years without revealing itself, so to speak, in an inactive state. Those same T cells contribute to the production of a certain amount of antibodies, which determine the presence of the virus in the body. After it has entered the bloodstream, a person automatically becomes its carrier and distributor, capable of infecting other healthy people.
The development of this disease is very slow and lasts for many years. The only signs indicating the presence of the disease are inflamed lymph nodes. After the incubation period, HIV infection multiplies rapidly, destroying absolutely all cells of the immune system, thereby causing a disease called AIDS.
The danger of this virus
AIDS itself and HIV infection do not have fatal consequences, they only create conditions for this. With immunodeficiency, the body is not able to fight even the smallest and minor infections that penetrate it. This becomes the cause of the development of severe forms of diseases with complications, which lead to serious consequences. If a person affected by the immunodeficiency virus picks up another serious infection (Botkin’s disease, Zika virus), the body will not respond to medication and the disease will only progress.
HIV infection
Immunodeficiency virus is transmitted through blood or secretions, for example, from the genitals. In other words, only the carrier of this disease can be the spread of infection. The HIV virus is found in the patient in the blood, in breast milk, in the secretions of the genitals (semen).
At first, the virus does not appear at all and does not make itself felt, so very often infected people do not know about their condition.
Actually, the virus can be transmitted from person to person through blood or sexually.
Very often in practice there are cases of accidental infection. This happens when you visit a dentist or manicurist who had an infected patient before you and the instrument was not properly disinfected, after the operation with a non-sterile instrument, other similar cases are possible.
But the virus is not always transmitted from humans, it can develop in the body in a non-contact way. Quite often in world practice there are cases when the immunodeficiency virus was caused by other severe viral diseases, such as extensive tuberculosis or viral hepatitis.
Many fear bites of various animals and insects. It is worth saying that only people can carry the immunodeficiency virus, animals are not distributors. The only exceptions are insects that feed on blood (in our regions these are mosquitoes, in Asian countries you can add leeches).
How is it impossible to get infected?
How long does HIV die in the environment and is it possible to get the infection by domestic means? From the external environment, the virus does not enter the human blood, but only onto the skin, so observing personal hygiene rules will be an excellent prevention of the disease.
Do not be afraid of people infected with HIV, they are not dangerous to others if you do not have sex with them. The virus is also not transmitted by shaking hands. It is impossible to get infected even through objects of your own use (combs, clothes, dishes, cutlery). The infection does not spread in saunas, pools, gyms and gyms, so you should not be afraid to visit such places.
How to recognize a disease?
How long does the HIV virus live in the environment and how does it spread? After infection, HIV infection does not manifest itself in any way, and the patient does not feel any discomfort and, as a rule, does not even suspect that he is infected. In rare cases, months later, flu-like symptoms may appear, fever, chills, fever, but no runny nose and sore throat. The only symptom by which this infection can be identified is a rash on the skin in the abdomen. If you suddenly began to feel periodic weakness, nausea, aversion to food, dizziness, and all this is not associated with poisoning or another disease, it is worth taking an HIV-AIDS test.
The latent (latent) form of the disease develops over a rather long period and the person does not feel discomfort, but this does not mean that no changes occur in the body. An HIV test will help determine the presence of a virus in the body. This is a routine blood test for antibodies produced by the immune system (as a reaction to the penetration of HIV into the body). How long does the HIV virus live in the environment? Let's discuss this in more detail.
HIV virus: environmental resilience
So, let's talk about the stability of this virus in the external environment. How long does the virus live outside the body? The HIV virus is very unstable and does not live long in the external environment. Many scientists argue about the time during which the virus remains active in the domestic environment. Some claim that he lives only a couple of minutes, while others state his life outside the body for several hours. One way or another, if HIV infection could dwell outside the body for a long time, in the world practice of treating this disease one could observe household infection methods, but they are absent. How much HIV is stored in the environment? It is not a rod infection or fungal spore, so the virus cannot live in the soil, especially for a long time.
How stable is HIV infection in the environment?
How long does the virus live outside the body? A completely different case when it is in the external environment along with DNA (a drop of blood, semen). In this case, factors such as the amount of DNA and the ambient temperature influence its lifespan. Under stable conditions and temperature conditions, the HIV virus in DNA in the external environment can survive for more than 48 days. That is why non-sterile dental, manicure and surgical instruments, on which there are drops of blood of an infected person, can infect healthy people for several days.
At what temperature does the virus die?
So, at what temperature does HIV die? He is not able to withstand high temperatures. Particles of the virus begin to die if they are heated for half an hour at a temperature ranging from 56 degrees Celsius, but these are non-critical indicators, since the most resistant cells will remain alive and eventually will be reborn again.
If we talk about the virus in the form in which it is contained in the blood, then the process will take longer and the temperature should be slightly higher. This virus has a protein shell, and, accordingly, is completely destroyed at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. If you keep the biomaterial at such a thermometer for 40 minutes, the virus will die completely and irrevocably. So, you have learned how long the HIV virus lives in the external environment and whether it is possible to get infected in the domestic environment. Now you know that this terrible infection can be avoided. Health to you and your family!