Effects of HIV?
-
Would someone enlighten me what would happen to someone with HIV? Decrease in lifespan? Sorry for my ignorance because most of the time I see people with HIV looking healthy.
-
its not a death sentence..get more meds and live a healthy lifestyle
-
get more meds and live a healthy lifestyle
Yeah, go ahead. Damage your liver with heavy drugs. Cause even more side effects from pills that'll make you dizzy, cause diarrhea and whatnot. Give yourself more years of already fucked up life by feeding companies with your money bills and statistics. Ignorance is bliss Kilo22.
-
Humane Immunodeficiency Virus, abbreviated as HIV is a virus that once, you are not seropositive anymore, attacks the dendritic cells, macrophages and T cells. The latter are important for your immune system, and you will be heavily compromised if you have none of these anymore. You are extremely vulnerable to diseases and may die of common viruses and bacteria if you are heavily immunocompromised. Medication will and may keep the virus in check, but the virus may mutate so certain medication won't be effective anymore after a time period. Seropositivity is where the virus is latent (sleeping in the cells of your body) and does not cause harm, you may not notice any symptoms but still may be able to infect partners through unprotected sex, sharing needles, or breastfeeding. Seropositivity may last several years, even longer, and then the virus will manifest itself. Depending on your lifestyle and battery of medicines you may live quite long, there may however be some side effects from the medicine you take in, such as nausea, anemia (abnormality in red blood cells), diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, pain and nerve problems and rash. Medicines may be cheaper or even free depending on where you live and on the healthcare you receive.
There is a three month time window after infection before the presence of the virus can be tested. Even if your latest test within that time window says you're negative, but have had unprotected sex with someone you could still be infected.
It is not a dead sentence indeed, and it may take some dedication to live more healthily and take all your medicines on time, and you may have to suffer a few side effects. The WHO has recommended people to take PrEP, which supposedly reduces the risk of contracting HIV by 92% if you have unprotected sex with a HIV infected person, this combined with good protection during sex, and the person is taking his medicines faithfully there is hardly any risk to engage in sexual contact. PrEP is already assigned to people if they are raped, and they have to use the medicine within 48 hours after sexual abuse and every day for a month. People who fear they have come in contact with bodily fluids of HIV infected people may also use the medicine, such as healthcare workers who interact with HIV patients. There are side effects to the medicine as well, since they're a diluted version of the regular HIV medicines (I'm not quite sure about this).
So use protection when you have sex, use new needles, be careful with breastmilk (but I suppose we're no longer the age we need that anymore) and if you work in healthcare be careful of blood of patients. Get regularly tested if you have sex with strangers or with multiple persons, and if your healthcare system covers it (and if you really want to), take PrEP.
-
You are extremely vulnerable to diseases and may die of common viruses and bacteria if you are heavily immunocompromised.
Thank you for the reply.
-
get more meds and live a healthy lifestyle
Yeah, go ahead. Damage your liver with heavy drugs. Cause even more side effects from pills that'll make you dizzy, cause diarrhea and whatnot. Give yourself more years of already fucked up life by feeding companies with your money bills and statistics. Ignorance is bliss Kilo22.
This is a fair argument for being careful, but some of us were careful and are still poz. Condoms used correctly are something like 99% effective; if they were 100% effective I wouldn't have the knowledge and experience to write this post.
Once you are poz, however, the options are taking the drugs and dying horribly in as few as 10 years.
The effects of being poz? Dealing with fuckwits who try to slut-shame you (because OBVIOUSLY if you're poz you're a slut and a whore who barebacks with strangers). Dealing with idiot bug-chasers who think they want it. (When I run into these, I ask a single question: how much would my monthly meds cost without insurance? If they can't answer that – and to date no bug chaser has even guessed over 30% of the figure -- then I give them a variant of this lecture.) The question of whether to put "poz" in online profiles or not -- if you don't then you have to figure out how to bring it up, and if you do, then you still have to figure out how to bring it up because most people don't read profiles. (Worst date evar: things had been going well, we seemed pretty compatible, one thing was leading to another, we were heading back to his place, I said "we should stop for condoms," he said, "why? I'm clean," and I said, "didn't you read my profile? I'm poz," and suddenly it was like I had said, "I'm a leper with hantavirus and Ebola" -- he wouldn't come within 5 feet of me, let alone touch me.) And when you're dating other poz guys? Most clueless guys think that once you're poz you can just bareback with abandon. But in reality you get to discuss strains and medications, because if you have different strains or he's on Truvada and you're on Atripla then it's even more critical to use condoms, because the nature of the disease is that your personal strain slowly becomes resistant to whichever medication you're on.
The state of HIV/AIDS research is such that there's a fair chance that something not related to HIV will be what kills me in the end, and current medications (while they still have side effects: the dizziness on Atripla goes away after a couple weeks of taking it, but the extremely vivid dreams never do) are good enough that, aside from taking 1 or 2 pills a day, being poz has very negative physical and physiological impact. But the negative social impact is going to take much longer to go away.
-
@cwilbur
1. Do you get sick easily as compared to others(i.e. You get fever instantly after being in the public)
2. Since being diagnosed with poz, do you bareback often knowing it couldn't get any worse? Knowing that even if you are having intercourse with other poz it wouldn't add any more problem?
Sorry for the insensitive question. Do ignore it if it makes you uncomfortable to answer. -
HIV is no longer an absolute death sentence that kills you in a few years due to medication advancements which are better tolerated and more effective. In the past doctors recommended not starting medications until your immune system (CD4 cells) diminished to a dangerously low level that risked infection and cancers. Today, newly diagnosed HIV+ patients are started on medications immediately after diagnosis. This typically involves taking 3 medications that cost about $25-30,000 a year; not to mention doctor and laboratory bills.
If you pass the virus to a sexual partner without their knowing you are positive, they can sue you for damages and you risk criminal prosecution which will label you as a sex offender for the rest of your life.
If an HIV+ individual remains on triple medications throughout their life, studies have shown there to be a near normal life expectancy minus 5 years. Unfortunately, there is increasing instances of virus resistance to different medications, so that about 5% of all patients on medications have medication failure that can result in a series of medication trials toward older medications that have more side effects and toxicities. When here is medication failure, due to noncompliance of 1-3 times a day medication schedules every day for life OR drug resistance, the immune system progressively diminishes within a year or two. When CD4 levels drop below 200, there is a large risk of infections and various types of cancers. One does not actually die from HIV, one dies from infections and cancers that run out of control with an absent immune system.
When an HIV+ individual is compliant with treatment over time, the risk of passing the virus to a partner during unprotected sex is about 4% (96% effective). Even though viral levels may be undetectable in a medication treated HIV+ individual, the virus still sheds small amounts of virus into the semen in about 25-50% of people.
Patients on effective medication do not get sick more easily than others when their CD4 levels are greater than 350. Normal CD4 levels are usually around 1000-1200. If one is unable to afford medication and remains unmedicated or has a resistance to medications, when CD4 levels drop below 350, one can pick up infections more easily. When CD4 levels drop below 200, the risk of infection increases substantially; as so various forms of cancer. However, even with medication and undetectable virus levels, there is a general greater risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and stroke) compared to HIV- individuals.
A major problem that comes up for HIV+ individuals taking medication is the extensive adverse interactions they have with other medications, so can complicate the effective treatment of any other condition. There are certain organ toxicities that can occur with different medications –- mostly liver and kidney.
Additionally, like cwilbur, mentioned, there is significant emotional and social complications and difficulties when dealing with HIV. So add in financial and physical repercussions of contracting HIV, I would strongly recommend anyone who is negative to do what is in their personal power to avoid contracting it by reducing one's risk at all cost.