Gastrointestinal HIV Infections
AIDS or HIV infection is not a very new development that the human anatomy is now battling. With the first reference to the health malady coming up in the early twentieth century, AIDS has been around for decades now. Ongoing research promises to offer fresh insight into the causes and symptoms and offer the world a new form of treatment that can reverse the damage done to the immune system. The disease is caused by the infection brought on by a human immunodeficiency virus. The virus thrives in body fluids and affects the immune system taking a toll on general well being within little or no time at all. This disease is a killer once it sets within the body fluids and grows in number within the human immune system.
Since it does not follow a uniform pattern or code or affect any particular age group, the disease can be detected only after the initial invasion is completed and settled. The symptoms attached to the malady manifest throughout the body and in different body organs. There are a number of gastrointestinal infections that are commonly observed in HIV infected individuals. Sadly, being genetic, the infections are easily passed on to the unborn fetus and down generations of the infected person and lineage.
The deterioration in overall health and well being in the case of an HIV/AIDS infected person is progressive in nature, reducing the person's immune ability to address and attack the viral invasion. The gastrointestinal infections commonly observed in an HIV positive person are mainly caused due to the transmission of the virus via vaginal, anal or oral sex.
The malady is also brought on via blood transfusions and the use of contaminated hypodermic needles when treating some other body ailment. The mother to baby transmission of the infection takes place during the course of pregnancy and childbirth. Thereafter the already infected child is exposed to further ailment via breastfeeding and contact with other bodily fluids. Gastrointestinal infections such as Esophagitis are caused. In this condition, there is an inflammation of the esophagus lining. The onslaught is narrowed down to the result of the subsequent exposure of the swallowing tube that leads to the stomach by fungus or viral infection. The development of candidiasis and herpes simplex-1 and/or other cytomegalovirus infections are also commonly observed.
The development of mycobacterium, chronic diarrhea, Salmonella, Campylobacter and other parasitic infections are also commonly observed. The other infections on record include cryptosporidiosis, microsporidiosis, complex MAC, astrovirus, and cytomegalovirus and colitis. The gastrointestinal ailments are treated with the help of several drugs and antibiotics. These are also noted as the cause of the onslaught. In the final stages of HIV infection, the development of diarrhea is observed as a reflection of the manner in which the patient's intestinal tract absorbs food ingested nutrients, and related wasting. The gastrointestinal maladies make the patient weak and in the presence of treatment options that are only temporary in nature, the mental and physical condition of the patient gets from bad to worse.