Related articles: AIDS
Definition
AIDS, an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is an infectious disease caused by the HIV virus, primarily of sexual transmission. By damaging the human immune system little by little, the HIV virus weakens the organic defenses against the attack of pathogenic microorganisms. The long-term result is a greater susceptibility to some types of potentially very serious infections and some cancers.Most common symptoms and signs *
- Anorexia
- Asthenia
- Testicular atrophy
- Dry mouth
- Cachexia
- Cardiomegaly
- Seizures
- Dementia
- Diarrhea
- Dysphagia
- dysgeusia
- Dyspnoea
- Muscle pains
- Pleural empyema
- Pharyngitis
- Temperature
- Tingling in the Left Arm
- Hydrops Fetal
- hypertrichosis
- undernourishment
- Jaundice
- Leukopenia
- leukoplakia
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Black tongue
- Thinness
- Sore throat
- Headache
- marasma
- Mass or swelling in the neck
- Mass or swelling in the groin
- Meningitis
- myoclonus
- Osteopenia
- Pancytopenia
- Weight loss
- thrombocytopenia
- Throat Plates
- pneumothorax
- Leg itch
- Rhabdomyolysis
- Growth delay
- Mental delay
- Nosebleeds
- Blood in the ejaculate
- seborrhea
- Nephrotic syndrome
- Night sweats
- Cough
- Uremia
- Pericardial effusion
- Pleural effusion
Further indications
The symptoms of AIDS depend on the stage of infection. Within 2-4 weeks from infection, flu-like symptoms can arise, such as fever, headache, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes and spleen, and skin rashes (note the similarity with the symptoms of infectious mononucleosis). This symptomatology, sometimes absent or however underestimated by the patient, tends to regress within a few weeks, leaving the individual in a perfect state of health, but only apparently. In fact, the patient can immediately transmit the disease to other people; in the following years, moreover, the HIV virus continues to multiply in the lymph nodes, gradually destroying the T helper lymphocytes, cells (white blood cells) very important because they are coordinators of the activity of the entire immune system. During this phase, which can last several years (on average 6-9), the patient complains of symptoms such as recurrent fever, weight loss, diarrhea, shortness of breath, cough and the typical swollen lymph nodes. In the last phase of the disease, which appears approximately after 10 or more years from the infection, the symptoms become more serious and they are added to those due to the development of the so-called opportunistic infections (pneumonia, candidiasis, toxoplasmosis, meningitis, herpes, tuberculosis and other).
