Mark Den A.

Camposano

12 Garnet

General Biology

Reflection on article entitled

“How does HIV affect the body?”

I.

Nowadays, HIV is prevalent to different places among different peoples. It could lead

several individuals to suffer to the different symptoms that cause by HIV. What is HIV?

According to HIV.gov, “Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus spread through certain body

fluids that attacks the body's immune system, specifically the CD4 cells, often called T cells. ...

Opportunistic infections or cancers take advantage of a very weak immune system and signal

that the person has AIDS”. In this statement, we can simply say that HIV can’t kill its host, but

the virus can survive and grow only by infecting, and destroying, the immune system. This

continual assault on the immune system makes it weaker and weaker until it is no longer able to

fight off infections. So, if a body is infected by the HIV, the virus itself doesn’t literally kill its

host but by destroying the defensive system of the body or weakening the immunity system so

that different infections can easily damage the body and the different symptoms may occur that

will possibly drive the host to death.

What effect does HIV have on the body? “HIV attacks a specific type of immune system

cell in the body. It’s known as the CD4 helper cell or T cell. When HIV destroys this cell, it

becomes harder for the body to fight off infections”. This statement triggers me because HIV
only destroy a cell that one of the helpers for the Immunity system. So, this Virus can be

considered as a smart body destroyer, because he destroys first the ones that could help the body

for its defensive state.

How common is HIV? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC)Trusted Source, around 1.1 million Americans have HIV. In 2016, the estimated number

of HIV diagnoses in the United States was 39,782. Approximately 81 percent of those diagnoses

were among men ages 13 and older. HIV can affect people of any race, gender, or sexual

orientation. The virus passes from person to person through contact with blood, semen,

or vaginal fluids that contain the virus. Having sex with an HIV-positive person and not using a

condom greatly increases the risk of contracting HIV.

Advanced infection; It may take some time, but HIV may eventually break down a

person’s immune system. Once this happens, HIV will progress to stage 3 HIV, often referred to

as AIDS. AIDS is the last stage of the disease. A person at this stage has a severely damaged

immune system, making them more susceptible to opportunistic infections.

Opportunistic infections are conditions that the body would normally be able to fight off,

but can be harmful to people who have HIV. People living with HIV may notice that they

frequently get colds, flu, and fungal infections. They might also experience the following stage 3

HIV symptoms: nausea, vomiting, persistent diarrhea, chronic fatigue, rapid weight loss,

cough and shortness of breath, recurring fever, chills, and night sweats, rashes, sores, or

lesions in the mouth or nose, on the genitals, or under the skin, prolonged swelling of the lymph

nodes in the armpits, groin, or neck, memory loss, confusion, or neurological disorders.
 How is HIV transmitted? So according to the article “HIV can be transmitted through

contact with the following bodily fluids, from most likely to lead to HIV transmission. Blood,

Semen, Vaginal Fluid and through Breast milk” In this statement we can simply say that HIV

can be prevented to be transmitted to other body, otherwise if there’s some people who’s lack of

knowledge about this and doesn’t apply some health sanitations like having an intercourse

without using a condom and sharing needles for tattoo, piercings or from syringe.

According to the article, there are three stages of HIV, the first is “Acute HIV where the

body is contracted with HIV that has flu-like symptoms that occur days to week”. So, in this

statement, if the body or person infected by this HIV, days after flu-like symptoms may occur

like fever, headache, rash, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue and myalgias or muscle pain. I

remember on our barangay that one of my friends having these illnesses, it was due to doing

vigorous works, but later after having a check-up, it was found out that he was contracted with

HIV, according to him that 2 days before having the illness, he engaged in intercourse with his

partner with using a contraceptive. But not all people with HIV experience initial flu-like

symptoms according to the article.

The second stage of HIV is the Chronic HIV also known as the latent or asymptomatic

stage. “In this stage, a person usually won’t have as many symptoms as they did during the acute

phase. This is because the virus doesn’t multiply as quickly”. So in this stage, symptoms are not

many as the first stage, but in this stage the host or the person can still transmit the virus if it is

left untreated and continue to have a detectable viral load (a measurement of the amount of a

virus in an organism, typically in the bloodstream, usually stated in virus particles per milliliter).

The last stage of HIV is the “AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is a

chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus

organisms that cause disease. HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI)” according to Mayo

Clinic Staff. This statement triggered me because I can’t actually imagine that having this kind of

disease could surely lead to death if treatment doesn’t held properly. People with AIDS also

vulnerable to tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis, and pneumonia, this infections could lead the person

to suffer respiratory symptoms.

There are factors that could affect the progression of HIV, one is if the person achieves

the viral suppression that could reduce the function of replication of the virus. Taking also the

antiretroviral therapy regularly to help people slow the progression of HIV to reach viral

suppression. Age also matters in progression of disease because the older the person that

contracted to HIV the faster the progression of the virus. Lifestyle also can be a prevalent factor,

having unhealthy lifestyle such as having a poor diet and experiencing severe stress, can cause

HIV to progress quickly. So people who’s already contracted to HIV must do a healthy lifestyle.

According to the article that HIV can be treated through antiretroviral therapy. This isn’t

a specific regimen, but instead a combination of three or four drugs. The U.S Food and Drug

Administration has currently approved 40 different medications to treat HIV. This treatment

need a regular medications so that the progression of the virus may reduce.

HIV can be prevented by avoiding having an intercourse without contraceptives, avoiding

sharing needles, including tattoo needles, needles used for body piercing, and needles used for

injecting drugs and avoiding contact with body fluids, such as semen, vaginal fluid, blood, and

breast milk according to the articles.

In this topic about HIV, I learned that this kind of virus can be considered as uncurable

disease but can be treated through antiretroviral therapy to slow the progress of virus and still not

completely cured. HIV can weaken the persons immunity system, that could lead different

diseases or infections to attach in the body. There are three stages of HIV where the first stage

the Acute HIV can replicate a copy of a virus, faster than the second stage which is the Chronical

HIV, and the AIDS the final stage where the person could suffer the different symptoms. HIV

progression could be reduce if the person reach the viral suppression. It can be transmitted only

through having intercourse without using contraceptives, through needles that used by the first

person and will be reuse by the other person, and coming into contact with body fluids such as

semen, blood and etc.

Mostly in western places people there acquired this kind of virus than eastern places. So,

it is more common to western people that there place is prone to this disease. Even though the

government officials and medical practitioners are concerned in about this disease and

implements an innovative technique to reduce the cases and continuous spreading of HIV to

people. So, people must wear contraceptives before having a sexual activity to prevent

transmission.

III.

So, the plan of action is people must follow all the prescription or advice from

knowledgeable people or from the health professionals/practitioners to prevent contraction on

HIV. To prevent getting infected to this virus; people must avoid getting prone to bodily fluids of
an infected person like blood, semen, breast milk etc. If the person noticed early that he/she get

infected of this virus., he/she must go quickly as possible to medical firms to have a check up so

that it will be treated quickly.

As a student who already knows about this HIV, we must take care ourselves and avoid

unnecessary doings so that we can prevent being contracted to HIV.

For those adults, if you engage an sexual intercourse in other girls for a pleasure, it is

necessary to use contraceptives especially the condoms.