Understanding AIDS-Related Conditions: Symptoms and Management

AIDS is a syndrome, which means that it is characterized by a number of different conditions. These include opportunistic infections, wasting syndrome, malignancies (cancers) and neurological problems.

Advanced HIV Disease

• AIDS-related conditions appear in HIV-positive people once HIV has led to the loss of cell-mediated immunity, the immune system's ability to successfully fight off infections. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this occurs when a person's CD4 (a type of cell infected by HIV) cell count falls below 200 per cubic milliliter of blood.

Opportunistic Infections

• The loss of cell-mediated immunity means that people with AIDS develop disease (or more serious disease) from infections that do not affect people with healthy immune systems; these are called opportunistic infections, or OIs. Common OIs include: toxoplasmosis (a brain infection caused by parasites), thrush (an oral fungus), pneumocystis pneumonia, herpesviruses, tuberculosis and malaria.

Wasting Syndrome

• AIDS wasting syndrome is a condition that causes severe weight loss, as well as weakness and fever. Wasting is a direct effect of HIV disease, but side effects (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) of some drugs used to treat HIV disease also contribute to wasting.

Cancers

• Several cancers are associated with AIDS. These include cervical cancer, lymphomas (cancers of lymph cells targeted HIV) and Kaposi's sarcoma. Kaposi's sarcoma is a skin cancer that presents as purple lesions and that is caused by opportunistic infection with human herpesvirus-8.

Neurological Conditions

• AIDS can also have an impact on the central nervous system. The most significant of these conditions is AIDS dementia complex, which can affect cognition, motor skills and behavior.