How fast does it progress? I know that everyone is different, but lets just talk in generalities. btw, I don't have HIV, it's just a topic of conversation i was having earlier with coworkers.
STDs - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a retrovirus, meaning that it mutates rapidly. This means that life expectancy would vary from person to person, depending on their strains. In some cases, HIV can develop symptoms with weeks and a person could develop AIDS within a year. (YOU DON"T DIE FROM AIDS. You die because the human body's defense system of white blood cells is depleted.) In other cases, HIV may not even present a positive result on a test with 6 months, and symptoms may not develop for up to 10 years.
2 :
I don't think there are numbers or statistics that can answer that questions. Everybody is different. I have known people that do drugs, drink, smoke etc and are positive but get sick once a year. Then there are people that do everything possible to stay healthy and they get sick. I've seen "normal" cases too where people take their meds, eat well etc and hardly ever get sick. But one would think if you are positive and eatting horrible, drinking/smoking, doing drugs, that you would get sick all the time. One of my ex's was positive and smoked a lot. He got sick a few times in the year, but when he did it would last for 2/3 weeks- pretty scary! As for the progression, that just depends on strong or weak of the strain is someone has. Check out the link below- it has lots of info about types, subtypes, the most common strains and least common. OOOO, and I would personally say that an average person not taking meds, and that eats bad and drinks or smokes would live for maybe 5 to 10 years before getting real sick. Good topic to discuss =0) After reading dude above me, the people that it takes 6 months to detect are considered rare cases. About 96 to 97% of people will be detectable by the 3rd month. (plus or minus a few,but still that number is pretty high and people should be getting tested regularly if you sleep around).
3 :
There are many variables that can increase or decrease the rate of progression in someone with HIV disease. Genetics, age, general health, strain of HIV, adherence to medications, etc. Averages (without HIV-specific treatment) (in North America) It can take around 8-10 years for major symptoms to show up, even after that a person would most likely live a few years with major symptoms and around 3 years once an AIDS diagnosis was made (assuming they were getting medical care for the opportunistic infections they may be fighting). Again as you mentioned, these are averages. Some people get infected and progress to AIDS in a few years (never heard of a few weeks as was mentioned above...), others can live with HIV for much longer without treatment. Some people don't seem to progress. They are called long term non-progressors (or more recently, Elite controllers). These people seem to have a genetic mutation that helps their body fight off HIV infection and keep it at bay. An even smaller percentage of people carry two copies of the mutated gene and seem to have 100% protection from even getting infected (more research is being done on this now.)
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