Hiv is a sexually transmitted infection sti. 3 clinical assessment of altered nutritional requirements and social or psychological issues that. Theres no cure for hivaids but medications can dramatically slow the progression of the disease. The measurement is critical in establishing thresholds for the initiation and discontinuation of opportunistic infection oi prophylaxis and in assessing the urgency to initiate art. A comprehensive nutritional assessment includes 1 anthropometric measurements of body composition. Without medication it may take years before hiv weakens your immune system to the point that you have aids.
Since its inception in 1995 thebody has reliably published vital hiv related information news support and personal perspectives. Viral load is the amount of hiv per milliliter of blood. The cd4 cell count provides information on the overall immune function of a person with hiv. Nutritional status should be assessed at regular intervals as part of management of human immunodeficiency virus hiv infection. Weve long been regarded as one of the most widely respected author. Keep an eye on your weight and eat well even when youre not hungry.
It can also be spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child during pregnancy childbirth or breast feeding. Some of the factors that are more likely to occur in women with advanced hiv wasting and loss of body fat anemia nutritional problems can also lead to menstrual changes because they affect the. Even a weight loss of 5 can raise your chances of trouble. The standard virus marker in clinical practice has been the measurement of plasma hiv rna with the objective of antiretroviral therapy art to reduce viral load as much as possible. In fact anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for getting or transmitting hiv. This makes it easier to measure.
Hiv viral load tests look for rna the part of hiv that has the recipe for reproducing itself. Measurement of cd4 count is particularly useful before initiation of art. Elimination of all infected cells. Hiv can be found in certain body fluidsblood semen cum pre seminal fluid pre cum or rectal fluidsof a person who has hivalthough receptive anal sex bottoming is much riskier for getting hiv than insertive anal sex topping its possible for either partnerthe top or the bottomto get hiv. Antiretroviral therapy aims to reduce a persons viral load to undetectable levels where the virus is no longer transmittable. 2 biochemical measurements of serum protein micronutrients and metabolic parameters.
They add an enzyme a kind of protein to make more copies of the rna. The simplest approach to assessment is serial weight measurement. The accurate and precise measurement of hiv 1 reservoirs is critical for the process to reliably assess the efficacy of candidate treatments that are aimed at reducing these reservoirs and for either demonstrating a functional cure or a sterilizing cure ie.