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HIV is an acronym that stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. These are viruses that cause the disease known as HIV, as well as (in the untreated state, if patients have this disease) eventually they may end up with a syndrome known as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.) In the absence of any therapy, if patients or individuals acquire HIV, perhaps 10 years later and no medications or no diagnosis, they may end up with a syndrome known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. In this circumstance, these are individuals who are known to have infection with HIV, but their immunity has been destroyed over the intervening years to the point where they're subject to infections with very uncommon and weak diseases, bacteria, parasites and other viruses.
HIV is an acronym that stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. These are viruses that cause the disease known as HIV, as well as (in the untreated state, if patients have this disease) eventually they may end up with a syndrome known as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.) In the absence of any therapy, if patients or individuals acquire HIV, perhaps 10 years later and no medications or no diagnosis, they may end up with a syndrome known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. In this circumstance, these are individuals who are known to have infection with HIV, but their immunity has been destroyed over the intervening years to the point where they're subject to infections with very uncommon and weak diseases, bacteria, parasites and other viruses.
By the end of 2014, it was estimated that there were 1.2 million individuals living with HIV infection in the United States. It's also estimated that about 50,000-55,000 new cases of HIV occur in the United States each year. Worldwide, there are an estimated 35-37 million individuals with HIV. The unfortunate part dealing with the history of this epidemic is that there are now at least 35 million people who have died from this viral illness - similar to the magnitude of death and destruction caused by the 1918 flu epidemic and the bubonic plague in the medieval times.
HIV and tuberculosis co-infection is very common in Sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, when I opened the first clinic for HIV in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City), we had a lot of interesting illnesses that we don't encounter here in the United States like penicilliosis, which is a fungal infection that behaves like histoplasmosis - a fungus we do have here in the United States and can co-infect people with HIV - particularly in the Midwest.
In the absence of any therapy, if patients are individuals acquire HIV (perhaps 10 years later and no medications or no diagnosis) they may end up with a syndrome known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. In this circumstance, these are individuals who are known to have infection with HIV, but their immunity has been destroyed over the intervening years to the point where they're subject to infections with very uncommon and weak diseases, bacteria, parasites, and other viruses.
You have been diagnosed with AIDS (the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), which is kind of the end product of years of not addressing or not knowing that you have HIV infection. But all of this is not a death sentence. All we need to do now is to focus on starting you on the appropriate medications. It will be as simple as one pill, once a day. Your CD4 cell numbers will come back up, approaching normal. Your viral load of that virus in your bloodstream will go to undetectable. You just need to remain on this drug and not miss a dose and slowly, as we get better (because you have lost so much of your immunity) we're going to take two steps forward and then it'll always be one back or three forward, two back. This will go on for months but by the end of the year, you're going to be absolutely amazed. You will have gained weight. You will probably be back at work and from there on out for the rest of your life, you're just going to maintain your life by taking a pill once a day.
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