HIV Infection and AIDS Health Article

Nutritional concerns

Nutrition is definitely a concern for the individual who is HIV infected and even more so for the individual who has progressed to AIDS. The antiretroviral drugs have numerous side effects that make eating an adequate diet difficult and the disease itself affects nutritional intake. It is important for HIV individuals to supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals as well as protein drinks to maintain their energy. There are many supplements on the market and in health food stores that can be of benefit. The patient needs to go in search of what best suits their tastes.

Prognosis

The prognosis for individuals with AIDS in recent years has improved significantly because of new drugs and treatments, and educational and preventive efforts. Women whose HIV infections are detected early and receive appropriate treatment survive as long as infected men. There are several studies that have shown HIV-infected women to have shorter survival times than men. Women may be less likely than men to be diagnosed early, which may account for shorter survival times. In an analysis of several studies involving more than 4,500 people with HIV infection, women were one-third more likely than men to die within the study period. The investigators could not definitively identify the reasons for excess mortality among women in this study, but they speculated that poorer access to or use of health care resources among HIV-infected women as compared to men, domestic violence, homelessness, and lack of social supports for women may have been important factors.

Researchers have observed two general patterns of illness in HIV-infected children. About 20 percent of children develop serious disease in the first year of life; most of these children die by age four years. The remaining 80 percent of infected children have a slower rate of disease progression, many not developing the most serious symptoms of AIDS until school entry or even adolescence. A recent report from a large European registry of HIV-infected children indicated that half of the children with perinatally acquired HIV disease were alive at age nine. Another study, of 42 perinatally HIV-infected children who survived beyond nine years of age, found about one-quarter of the children to be asymptomatic with relatively intact immune systems.

Prevention

Because no vaccine for HIV is available, the only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid behaviors that put a person at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex. Many people infected with HIV have no symptoms; therefore, there is no way of knowing with certainty whether a sexual partner is infected unless he or she has repeatedly tested negative for the virus and has not engaged in any risky behavior. Individuals should either abstain from having sex or use male latex condoms or female polyurethane condoms, which may offer partial protection, during oral, anal, or vaginal sex. Only water-based lubricants should be used with male latex condoms. Although some laboratory evidence shows that spermicides can kill HIV, researchers have not found that these products can prevent a person from getting HIV.

The risk of HIV transmission from a pregnant woman to her baby can be significantly reduced with the use of antiretroviral drugs taken during pregnancy, labor, and delivery and administered to the baby for the first six weeks of life. In addition, the International Perinatal HIV Group reported in 1999 that elective cesarean section delivery could help reduce vertical transmission of HIV, although it is not without risk to certain women.

Parental concerns

Parental concerns are reflected in the status of a reproductive couple to prevent the transmission of the virus before pregnancy and if this is not possible, to obtain adequate prenatal care to prevent the transmission to the baby.

See also High-risk pregnancy.