In the three and a half decade since HIV/AIDS was discovered, the virus has killed more than 35 million people with only two of them being completely cured. Over the years, several attempts have been made to completely treat this condition but the success rate has been very low.
Let’s try to understand how HIV affects our body with an example. Think of your body as a computer. This computer will require some sort of cybersecurity system installed in it that protects it from threats like malware and viruses, pretty much similar to the immune systems in our bodies. This cybersecurity system will be built on some code that helps it identify the threats that are harmful to the computer and eliminate them. The T-cells in our immune systems are the codes that form the cybersecurity system, i.e; they guard us against various infections, viruses, and diseases.
So let’s try to understand why humans have been struggling to find a cure for this disease.
Let’s try to understand how HIV affects our body with an example. Think of your body as a computer. This computer will require some sort of cybersecurity system installed in it that protects it from threats like malware and viruses, pretty much similar to the immune systems in our bodies. This cybersecurity system will be built on some code that helps it identify the threats that are harmful to the computer and eliminate them. The T-cells in our immune systems are the codes that form the cybersecurity system, i.e; they guard us against various infections, viruses, and diseases.
However, someday, a virus attacks not just your computer, but the code that forms the blocks of your cybersecurity system. This way, the virus affects the very core of your computer and its security system by impairing their ability to eliminate other threats as well. This is exactly what the Human Immunodeficiency Virus does to your body. It attacks the T-cells in your immune system, leaving it weak and impaired. The virus then uses these T-cells to replicate themselves and increase their numbers in our bodies, all the while destroying the T-cells they used as hosts. Since the immune system of our bodies is compromised, it leaves the patients suffering from HIV more prone to diseases, infections, and allergies.
Initially, the symptoms of HIV could be a high temperature, cold, rash, etc. that could last for days or weeks. The visual signs of HIV, however, recede and are not very obvious after this period. The virus, nevertheless, keeps growing and destroying the T-cells in our body. When left untreated for over eight to ten years, HIV reaches the advanced stage of AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). Till this time, most of the T-cells in our bodies are destroyed and do not even have the ability to ward off simple infections like the common cold.
HIV/AIDS has always posed a challenge for medical professionals. Since our T-cells attempt to tackle the virus when it attacks our bodies, it gives the virus more room to attack them and replicate. Also, the virus can write its genetic code in the genome of the infected cells, making it almost impossible to eliminate it completely from a body as the traces of it are stored in the patient’s DNA. This also facilitates easy replication of themselves in the host body. HIV/AIDS still affects millions of people every year and even though, there are preventive measures and ways to inhibit the growth of the virus in our bodies, there is still a long way to go as many of us still do not have the optimal access to treatment.
SMBT Group of Medical Institutes urges you to do your bit for the AIDS crisis. Donate for the cause, practice protected intercourse, get tested every once in a while, and keep spreading the word! For more such informative blogs, keep following us.
HIV/AIDS has always posed a challenge for medical professionals. Since our T-cells attempt to tackle the virus when it attacks our bodies, it gives the virus more room to attack them and replicate. Also, the virus can write its genetic code in the genome of the infected cells, making it almost impossible to eliminate it completely from a body as the traces of it are stored in the patient’s DNA. This also facilitates easy replication of themselves in the host body. HIV/AIDS still affects millions of people every year and even though, there are preventive measures and ways to inhibit the growth of the virus in our bodies, there is still a long way to go as many of us still do not have the optimal access to treatment.
SMBT Group of Medical Institutes urges you to do your bit for the AIDS crisis. Donate for the cause, practice protected intercourse, get tested every once in a while, and keep spreading the word! For more such informative blogs, keep following us.
0 comments:
Post a Comment