Today the question: "What is HIV?"sounds a little strange ... Is there still people left who do not know anything about this (children do not count)? In addition, those who are aware of this, for some reason the concept of" HIV "is associated with the word" AIDS. "This far from it! Let's put everything in its place:
What is what?
The human immune system deficiency virusmost HIV) is a general concept of infection. AIDS is already a kind of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which was caused by HIV infection. It will take years before doctors can diagnose the presence of AIDS in humans. In this case, it is said that one or several very serious diseases developed in his body.
How does this happen?
The mechanism of action is to weakenHIV infection of the human immune system until opportunistic diseases begin to develop in his body, with which healthy immunity always coped.
What is HIV for our body?
This is a slow but sure death ...The virus attacks certain cells in the human body, which by its 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 protect itself from parasites, bacteria, fungi or cancer.
So, now we know what HIV infection is andwhat is AIDS. These are completely different phenomena. The first attack is a destroyer of the human immune system, and the second - developing on its background a set of certain diseases.
This, strictly speaking, is the diagnosis of thisinfection. 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 taken from the vein, after which it is sent to a special laboratory for analysis. Keep in mind that any primary positive result will necessarily be more accurately rechecked. After all, in some cases, the results of testing are false:
The usual period during which you can learnresults of its analysis, is three days. By the way, in some countries for the diagnosis of HIV infection came up with a test of saliva. Admittedly, such tests are not as reliable as blood sampling.
This method of diagnosis involves the use ofa quick test, donating blood from the finger (and no longer from the vein) in the laboratory for the study of venous blood. The result will be known in a few minutes. Paradoxically, this test method gives an instant answer to the question: is there an infection or not, but can not immediately determine if a person is infected ... No, do not think that this is not serious! The results of this testing are as accurate as in the traditional venous blood collection. 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! Rapid testing "sees" only antibodies to HIV infection, but not the virus! Therefore, for the right result it is necessary that from the moment of infection of a person, not less than twelve weeks have passed.
