Virus and you

Symptoms of HIV can include:

• chronic yeast infections or thrush (yeast infection of the mouth)
• Fever and/or night sweats
• Easy bruising
• Bouts of extreme exhaustion
• Unexplained body rashes
• Appearance of purplish lesions on the skin or inside mouth
• Sudden unexplained weight loss
• Chronic diarrhea lasting for a month or more

After you get HIV about ten years later you can get aids. But with treatments it will take about 10-15 years more to get it than non treated HIV carriers.

How is HIV spread and who is most vulnerable?


HIV is spread through body fluids. Anything such as intercourse, direct contact with infected blood, sharing needles, or from infected mother to her unborn child can help spread HIV.
A form of HIV has been found in wild gorillas in western central Africa. This is the first time the AIDS-causing virus has been detected in primates other than chimps and humans.
Women are more vulnerable than men for HIV, especially women in poor countries such as
Africa or Asia. Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that men infected with a combination of hepatitis B and HIV are 17 times more likely to die than those with hepatitis B alone.

















How is HIV diagnosed and treated?

A blood test is used to confirm whether a person has been infected with HIV. Anyone who has engaged in risky behavior - such as sharing drug - injecting equipment or having unprotected sexual contact with an infected person or with someone whose HIV status is unknown - should consider being tested.

There are many treatments now that can help people with HIV. As a result, many people with HIV are living much longer and healthier lives than before.

Currently, medicines can slow the growth of the virus or stop it from making copies of itself. Although these drugs don't kill the virus, they keep the amount of virus in the blood low. The amount of virus in the blood is called the viral load, and it can be measured by a test.The lower the viral load, the longer a person can stay healthy and fight off infections.

There are several types of anti-HIV drugs. Each type attacks the virus in its own way. It's similar to the way the military plans an attack using the different strengths of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.

SOURCES
http://www.hiv.va.gov/vahiv?page=basics-06-00
http://www.epigee.org/health/hiv_symptoms.html
http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/aids/ADS_diagnosis.html

Virus On Its Own

The Structure of The Virus
The structure of the HIV cell is two copies of single-stranded RNA enclosed by a conical capsid comprising the viral protein p24.

How Does The Virus Attach Itself To a Host Cell?
HIV attaches to its host cell when it comes into contact with a T-cell. It then must attach itself to the cell so that it is able to fuse with the cell and inject its genetic material. The attachment is a specific bonding between the proteins on the surface of the virus and proteins that serve as receptors on the surface of the T-cell, these receptors are normally used to help to cell communicate with other cells.

The Process The Virus Undergoes To Replicate
When HIV cells replicate they go through a process of budding. Budding is the formation of a new organism by the protrusion of part of another organism, because of this the daughter cell is identical to the parent cell. First HIV genetic material is gathered up with newly made HIV proteins and enzymes to form new viral particles which are then released from the cell. Then an enzymes protease chops up long strands of protein into smaller pieces which are then used to construct mature viral cores. Finally the matured cores are ready to infect other cells and begin the replication process all over again. The process is very quick and spreads very rapidly through out the human body.


References
Information
http://www.avert.org/virus.htm
This site was very informative with lots of knowledgeable information and was very helpful answering many of my questions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_structure_and_genome
This site was seemed very accurate and detailed allowing me to learn many things about the HIV cell and was very helpful assisting me to answer questions.

Pictures
http://discover8.com/public/images/upload_article_images/080221183340.jpg
http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/retro/2005gongishmail/hiv2.jpg
http://www.vircolab.com/content/backgrounders/www.vircolab.com/hiv_virus.gif