If you have AIDS and take medicine all the time, how long can you live?

Hi everyone, I'm Dr.

Lee.

I am not in the field of infectious diseases, but I have several good friends who work in infectious diseases, what are the most common infectious diseases in infectious disease hospitals? No need to guess, everyone should be a little eyebrows, hepatitis B and tuberculosis are basically the most common
.

In addition, some STDs, such as syphilis and gonorrhea
, are also uncommon.
Syphilis, hospitalized patients are routinely checked, but few positive people have been found, I always thought that syphilis is rare, the impression is only when I was a child after school passing by various telephone poles to see syphilis advertisements, but in fact, syphilis is definitely a top infectious disease
.

Take a look at the data reported by infectious diseases nationwide in 2020:

Of course, our focus today is not on syphilis.

But you can also take a look at the data of syphilis, more than 460,000 cases were reported in 2020, and 54 deaths were reported, and the mortality rate is actually quite low, and syphilis is basically not dead, unless it is very serious syphilis
in the late stage.
What is the concept of more than 460,000 cases per year?

Let's take a look at the number of national infectious disease reports in 2020, so that there is a good comparison:

Hepatitis B is more than 900,000 a year, hepatitis C is almost 200,000, tuberculosis is 670,000, syphilis is 460,000, gonorrhea is 100,000, see no, these are more than 100,000 level
.
Looking at it throughout, it is the results of top students
.
There is also an outstanding, influenza more than 1.
1 million, but because the flu is generally relatively mild, almost do not go to infectious disease hospitals, and are not within the scope of
our discussion.

The focus was on AIDS
.

1.
How many new HIV cases occur each year?

You may think that AIDS thinks you are far away, but it is not
.
The incidence of AIDS is not very low, and it is possible that it is nearby
.
I don't say this to scare you, because AIDS is not as scary as
you think.
AIDS has created a stereotype, ah he has AIDS, he will not live long, he will soon die, it is miserable, and so on
.

In fact, AIDS is already a chronic disease, and we will continue to talk about it
next.
Looking at the above annual report, you will find that in 2020, the country reported 62,167 cases of AIDS, and in 2015 it was 50,330 cases, a little increasing trend, every year is tens of thousands of cases like this, although this is not comparable to syphilis, but it is also common, many infectious diseases are a few cases per year, dozens of cases, hundreds of cases, thousands of cases in this way, can reach the number of tens of thousands of cases per year, is not a small number
.

Therefore, AIDS is still a relatively common infectious disease
.
According to data from the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, by the end of 2020, there were 1.
053 million people across the country who reported being alive with HIV (infected with HIV, not necessarily entering the AIDS stage).

1.
05 million, which is not small
.
But you say it's not big
.
We have

2.
How high is the AIDS mortality rate?

Fear of Ai
.
It is a very common phenomenon
.
After all, we have received similar views: AIDS will destroy the body's immunity, and the disease will soon die
.

The most terrifying part of HIV is that it specifically attacks our immune cells, such as CD+4 T lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, and you don't have to go deeper into what these awkward cells do, as long as you roughly understand that they are our immune cells, the guardians in our body, the navy, land and air forces fighting bacteria and viruses in our body, special forces, the army, the police, and that's
almost enough.

HIV creeps in, brings down the army in the body (paralyzes the immune system), and then any small role can kill us
.
It's like written in a martial arts novel, Dongfang Undefeated crippled Ling Hu Chong (this is not true, I assume ha), and then a shrimp soldier crab will hold a small knife and tremble but Ling Hu Chong's life, just pick up a big dead chicken
.

HIV is the undefeated character
of the East.
It doesn't kill you, but it can paralyze your army system, nullify your martial arts, and let other bacteria and viruses kill you
.

The East is undefeated and terrible, no? Terrible!

HIV scary isn't it? Terrible!

If we list some data, you will know how terrible AIDS is
.

The latest version of epidemiology tells us that once AIDS enters the AIDS stage, the case fatality rate is 50% within 1 year, 80% in 3 years, and almost all deaths
within 5 years.

This is a suffocating set of data
.

But ha, this is actually not so scary anymore
.
First of all, compared with rabies, AIDS is still good, once rabies occurs, it will die within 6 days (mortality rate 100%), AIDS at least lucky enough to live for a few years, literally seems like this
.
If AIDS is undefeated in the East, I don't know who to compare to rabies, and there seems to be no more powerful character in Jin Yong's novel than the undefeated in the East
.

Secondly, after the patient is infected with HIV, it will go through three stages, first the acute phase (lasting a few weeks), then the asymptomatic period (lasting several years, ten years and eight years or even longer), and finally entering the AIDS phase, which is the gradual aggravation of the virus infection and the gradual and slow paralysis of the body's immunity.

Therefore, an AIDS patient may be infected with HIV without knowing it, because he may be in an asymptomatic period, he does not know if he does not go to the hospital for examination, and he can still bounce around for several years
.
Everything looks good, normal life, unaffected
.
The only exaggeration is that the patient at this time is a virus transmitter, and if he/she has unprotected sexual contact with other members of the opposite sex or the same sex, it is easy to infect each other
.

The book says that 50% of deaths within 1 year, 80% of deaths in 3 years, and basically all deaths in 5 years refer to the part of patients who have entered the AIDS stage and have not received formal antiviral treatment, during which the patient has almost no immunity in the body and is vulnerable, so 50% of deaths within 1 year, this data is even conservative
.

3.
How long can AIDS patients live if they take medicine all the time?

Well, finally getting into our topic
.

If the patient finds out early that he is infected with HIV, for example, due to an accidental unclean sex (such as prostitution), the patient feels very regretful afterwards, so he takes the initiative to test, and finds that he is really infected, because the disease is in the early stage, and the regular antiviral treatment is started early under the guidance of the doctor, then they will not have the above situation
.

Today's medical technology level, drug capacity, has been able to achieve AIDS chronic disease, that is, through long-term medication to maintain normal activity ability, just like high blood pressure, diabetes, have become a chronic disease (of course, there are cases of poor treatment effect), but the premise of all this is to start antiviral treatment
in time.

This is a very great thing
.

At this stage, the goal of AIDS prevention and treatment is "90-90-90", three 90s, what does it mean? 90% of HIV-infected people were detected, 90% were found to receive antiviral therapy, and 90% of infected people receiving antiviral therapy were successfully suppressed
.

And 2021 (this year) marks the 40th anniversary of the global discovery of AIDS, and the goal of AIDS prevention and treatment has also been raised: 95-95-95-95 (four 95)
by the end of 2025.
That is, 95% of high-risk groups received comprehensive prevention, 95% of HIV-infected people were detected, 95% of those tested and found received antiviral therapy, and 95% of infected people receiving antiviral therapy were successfully inhibited
viral replication.

Seeing these data, everyone should see the current attitude of the infectious disease community to the prevention and control of AIDS, which can be said to be confident, these are all dependent on the progress of
technology and drugs.
In the early years, when there were not so many antiviral drugs, AIDS was indeed a pain
in the heart.
But in recent years, antiviral drugs have made great progress, even hepatitis C has been cured, hepatitis B is believed to be better contained in the near future, AIDS is of course also contained
.

The Lancet has a report on HIV treatment: A healthy American has a life expectancy of 78.
8 years, while a 20-year-old HIV-infected person who receives treatment now may have a life expectancy of 78 years, which is almost normal
.

Therefore, AIDS patients, as long as they receive regular antiretroviral treatment, long-term survival is generally no problem
.
This is also what we strive for
.

4.
How can I tell if I have AIDS?

No one, simply by observing with the naked eye, will find out that he or someone else has AIDS, even if the other person is an addict
.
You go to the infectious disease hospital to see, many AIDS patients are no different from others, many people have no symptoms, even if they have symptoms, it is fever, diarrhea, weight loss, etc.
, you can not be equated with AIDS, there are too many diseases with similar symptoms
.

Only by relying on testing is the gold standard
for diagnosing AIDS.

If you are sure that you do not have unclean sex (such as prostitution, hooking up, chaotic private life, etc.
), and your partner loves your body as much as you do, then there is generally no AIDS, after all, AIDS is still mainly
sexually transmitted.
Even if you see that your initial screening result is positive at this time, although it is scary, it may also be a false positive
.
I look at some data, the initial screening accuracy rate is about 98%-99%, not 100%, as long as you are sure that you and your partner are clean and have not taken drugs, further tests will find that it may be a false positive
.
Why? Because now the probability of transmission through blood is much smaller
.

Where to get tested for HIV? Some patients are found to be admitted to the hospital for routine examination, especially surgical patients, involving those who may need surgery, must be tested for AIDS and syphilis
.
Some people took the initiative to go to the CDC for testing
.

Many of the cities I learned about have voluntary HIV counseling and testing platforms on the official websites of the CDC, including Guangzhou
.

You can also go to your local CDC window for counseling, and voluntary HIV testing is confidential and free
.
Including future treatment, the state also has a policy, and some key drugs can be used free of charge
.
All of this is aimed at controlling AIDS and eradicating AIDS
.

5.
Is there a lot of pressure on AIDS prevention and control?

Great
.

Why? Because many people don't know they have AIDS
.
For example, when he went to a major health care, although he was a little worried, he was not uncomfortable afterwards, and he would not think that he would have AIDS
.
In this way, several years, ten years and eight years, and then entered the AIDS period, began to have fever, diarrhea, weight loss and other symptoms, only to come to the hospital, the doctor checked a round, and finally found that it was AIDS
.

But it was too late
.

It is not that the patient has come late and has not been treated, in fact, as long as the active antiretroviral treatment is carried out, there is still a great chance that the disease progression can be controlled, after all, we have all said that AIDS can achieve chronic disease
.
To say that it is too late means that AIDS has not been discovered for so many years, and has been having unprotected sexual contact with other people, and has already spread AIDS, and it is indeed too late in terms of AIDS prevention and control
.

Therefore, timely detection of HIV-infected people is the key to AIDS prevention and treatment, and it is also the most difficult to achieve and evaluate the prevention and control goals
.
The only way is for everyone to clean themselves (this is impossible) and cut the chain
of transmission from the transmission route.
Taking a step back, you can only keep informing everyone, don't forget that you can come to the CDC for testing
.
If you have high-risk sex, don't forget to come to the CDC to get a free HIV test
.
Some researchers have even begun to try to rely on mobile phone apps, Internet platforms, etc.
to promote HIV rapid testing and self-testing
.

But even so, the late detection rate of HIV infection has not decreased significantly, and many people wait until the yellow cauliflower is cold before coming to the hospital.

How can people with HIV be detected early? How to get the group that has had a high-risk sex life to voluntarily undergo testing? This is the hardest question
.
Because not everyone is willing to face HIV, they always think that they cannot have HIV, and they are not willing to go to the CDC window for consultation, in case of encountering acquaintances, in case of information leakage, in the environment where everyone is still afraid of AIDS, their mentality is understandable
.

One way to do this is to increase the popularization of
science.
It's like my article
.
Everyone must like, watch, or even forward
after reading it.
Retweeting doesn't mean you have a problem, it means that you want the people around you to pay attention
.

In summary, although AIDS can already achieve chronic disease, China's AIDS prevention and control is still not optimistic, and the number of newly reported HIV infection cases remains high (62,167 new cases reported in 2020):

The late detection rate is still very high, and there is still no significant improvement in new HIV infection and HIV drug resistance transmission in key areas and specific populations, and the incidence and mortality of AIDS combined with chronic diseases are still on the rise
.

6.
Finally

Finally, I hope everyone can have a clear understanding
of HIV.
HIV is still a serious disease that should not
be taken seriously.
If you suspect that you are at risk, it is best to go to the CDC as soon as possible to find out
.
At the same time, I also wish that there are lovers in the world who can be faithful (many AIDS patients are innocent, they are transmitted by fixed sexual partners, they are very aggrieved and helpless, but they must be actively treated), chaotic private life is not a glorious thing, no matter how much money there is, if there is no health, there is no stable and happy family, it is also unhappy
.

Yes, that's my definition of
happiness.

(End)

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