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1. Are there some individuals who have been infected with HIV for a long time bu

ID: 135854 • Letter: 1

Question

1. Are there some individuals who have been infected with HIV for a long time but have not vet progressed to AIDS? Explain your answer. 2. Do those infected individuals who have not progressed to AIDS have immune system characteristics that those who do progress do not have? 3. What cell types of the human host carry HIV? 4. What are some of the structural features of HIV that may be relevant in understanding the virus? 5. How does HIV gain access to host cells? 6. What is the difference between AIDS-related complex and full-blown AIDS? 7. AIDS may initially manifest as persistent generalized lymphadenopathy syndrome. What does this mean?

Explanation / Answer

1) Yes. HIV or Human Immunodeficiency virus is a virus that can lead to the condition known as AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. AIDS is otherwise known as stage 3 HIV. However it is not necessery that an HIV infection will progress to stage 3. Sometimes people live a normal life without showing any symptoms of AIDS even after getting infected by the HIV virus. Stage 1 of HIV infection can start with a flu which most of the people won't experience. Stage 2 can last upto 10 years with no apparent symptoms. Stage 3 is when the HIV completely affets the immune system and one can't even resist the common infections like cold etc due to dysfunctional immune system.

2) The progression of HIV infection into critical stages depends mainly upon the gentic makeup , how healthy they were before infection, how much virus they are exposed to, how early the virus is detected etc.,

3) HIV in body fluids can be presnt as both free virus particle and also present in host cells. The host cells for HIV in humans are T helper cells( specifically CD4+ cells), macrophages and dentritic cells.