The whole process of HIV infection is exposed, so shocking, I recommend everyone to watch it

Author: Zhang Wei (Beijing Ditan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University)

Do you know how a strong person’s immune defense system is gradually disintegrated and weakened after being infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)? This is actually the story of “Goujian, the King of Yue” in the microscopic world.

After HIV invades the human body, it attacks the immune cells of our body. Medically, it is a type of immune cells called “CD4+ T lymphocytes”, which are an important part of our immune system. Part of it has the function of resisting external foreign bodies and removing useless substances in the body.

From HIV invading the human body, to causing AIDS in the human body, and then to death, it is a long and complex process. At different stages of this process, the manifestations of diseases in our body are also diverse.

First, HIV crosses the skin barrier and enters the bloodstream. But at this time, the number of HIV that invaded the human body is still “weak” and cannot make a “big wave”, so the immune system has not yet noticed its harm.

Taking advantage of the relaxation of the human immune system, HIV begins its unbridled growth and reproduction process.

Image source: Zhanku Hailuo

Phase 1: Acute Phase

A week after HIV invades the human body, the HIV army engages in a fierce battle with the body’s immune system by vigorously growing and multiplying. There were heavy casualties on the battlefield. And our human body has become the “Asura Field” everywhere.

However, during this period, infected people will have clinical symptoms, with fever the most common, and may be accompanied by symptoms such as sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, diarrhea, and rash. A very small number of acute-phase infections are relatively mild and go unnoticed.

Phase II: Asymptomatic

The HIV army that has just invaded the human body and gained power soon is not strong. The immune system of the body can clear most viruses. Although the initial battle is successful and the body returns to peace, there are no obvious symptoms, but it is not All HIV in the body will be eliminated.

A small portion of the “remnant” will enter the immune cells and hide.

The so-called “eating one bite grows one wisdom”, HIV does not dare to sway provocatively again after learning about its situation of “depending on others” and the powerful function of the human immune system, for fear of being infected again. Instead of fighting the battle of the immune system, he changed his strategy and imitated Goujian, the king of Yue in ancient China, quietly lurking inside the immune cells, constantly replicating and proliferating, slowly eroding the immune cells, and gradually causing the human immune system to enter a state of paralysis.

This stage generally lasts 6 to 8 years, depending on the amount and type of HIV, the route of infection, differences in immunity between individuals, nutritional conditions, and living habits.

Image source: Zhanku Hailuo

Phase III: AIDS Period

This is the period of onset of AIDS. At this time, the immune cells of the human body are completely destroyed by HIV, and the immunity drops sharply. HIV regroups, assembles the army, and launches the final offensive.

At this time, there are three main symptoms in the human body.

The first is the damage caused by the aggressive attack of HIV, such as fever, diarrhea, night sweats lasting more than one month, weight loss of more than 10%, persistent generalized lymphadenopathy, and some patients Psychiatric symptoms such as memory loss, personality changes, headaches, epilepsy, and dementia may also occur.

In addition, various opportunistic infectious diseases and tumors occur due to the breakdown of the body’s immune system.

At this stage, the immune system of the human body has been fragmented and has no resistance, and AIDS patients have basically reached the end of their lives.

This is the whole process of HIV parasitizing in the human body. At present, our national clinical staging adopts the above three stages, which are AIDS clinical staging developed by the medical community in my country according to the pathogenesis of AIDS and suitable for our country’s situation.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a clinical staging system according to the severity of AIDS symptoms and treatment needs: clinical stage I (asymptomatic stage), clinical stage II (mild Disease stage), clinical stage III (moderate disease stage), clinical stage IV (severe disease stage, namely AIDS stage).

Image source: Zhanku Hailuo