NR324 Exam 3 Study Guide

- You cannot get HIV through kissing. - Not a disease you can get casually. - Retroviral disease – it replicates backward – that’s why it is difficult to cure. o Many are living longer with HIV. It is more a chronic disease today. Just like diabetes. - HIV is not AIDS o AIDS is the end stage of HIV. Takes about 8-10 years from HIV to AIDS. o Some do develop AIDS very quickly. - HIV is a virus suppresses/destroys the immune system. - Many will die from opportunistic diseases – pneumonia is the biggest and most deadly. - Transmission happens with exchange of body fluids. o Breast milk. o Sexual contact o Blood o Semen o Vaginal secretions o Most common transmission route is sexual contact. - Only 1 in 4 babies born to HIV+ women will contract HIV. - Puncture wounds are the most common method of transmission to medical workers. o Used needles! Be extremely careful. o They check your blood for 6 months to ensure you are not infected. Some hospitals will put you on antivirals if you are exposed. - You cannot donate blood if you have hepatitis, are gay, get a tattoo in the last year, or are HIV+. - It is difficult to get HIV through a blood transfusion because of screening guidelines. - Only 25% of babies born to untreated HIV+ mother will get HIV. o Treatment reduces the risk down to 2%. o Antiretrovirals - If you are infected today, you will not know right away, but you will be serum positive for HIV. - Within 2 weeks you will still not know, but the viral load will rise. o May have flu like symptoms. Lasts 3-5 days and then goes away. o CD4 cells (T-helpers cells) fight for immunity. Normal CD4 is 800-1200. They will combat the virus and the CD4 will drop. Then it will normalize again because they are fighting the virus. The patient will not know they have HIV because they have no symptoms. - Even if someone is negative, you must come back for retesting. It can lay dormant or viral load is very low. - ELISA test – not a conclusive diagnosis for HIV. - Only conclusive test for HIV is the western blot test. Takes about two weeks to get results. - HIV only attacks the CD4 cells. That is how it destroys out immunity. - It is an RNA viral disease that replicates backwards.