1. HIV has two stages - an acute stage lasting around 4 weeks with flu-like symptoms, and a chronic stage that can last 20 years where the virus resides in lymph nodes. 2. HIV is transmitted through blood or sexual contact, or from mother to child. There is no cure but treatment with antiretroviral therapy can allow those infected to live long lives. 3. HIV's fast replication causes many strains to develop, making vaccination difficult. It is prevalent in Africa where lack of healthcare means it passes from mothers to children through breastfeeding.

1. Jordan Schneider
Social Issues 2˚
Research Benchmark 2
IV. PRESENTATION AND MANIFESTATION:
1. HIV has two stages, the first acute stage and the second chronic stage. e acute stage begins
around two to four weeks after infection and is caused by a period during which the HIV
infection is replicating extremely rapidly. During this stage of the infection patients usually
suffer from influenza like symptoms, such as fever, lymphadenopathy, nausea, headache, etc.
this stage usually lasts around 28 days and has never lasted less than a week. HIV is usually not
diagnosed at this point and is mistaken for some other more common infection. e chronic
stage is the second stage of the HIV infection, it can last between two weeks and twenty years.
During the chronic stage the virus resides mostly in the lymph nodes, causing them to be
constantly swollen; this is because of the large number of viruses trapped in the follicular
dendritic cells.2
2. HIV is contracted when the virus enters the bloodstream, either through physical blood-on-
blood contact, unprotected sexual intercourse, or from breast milk. Taking into account these
potential modes of transmission, it is relatively easy to avoid contracting HIV if one doesn’t
share blood with an infected person. It is made easier because by law, people with HIV have to
tell someone if they are asked whether they have it.1
3. e only long-term symptom caused by HIV itself is a dramatic decrease in CD4+T cells (T-
cells), almost all other symptoms occur during the acute stage of the infection; these include:
fever, lymphadenopathy, nausea, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, and moth and esophageal
sores. Any others “symptoms” associated with HIV after this point are usually the symptoms of
another illness caught because the immune system is compromised.2
4. e current diagnosis of HIV is still terminal, however people infected with HIV, thanks to
modern medicine, can hope to live a relatively long life as compared to those infected who are
unlucky and die very early on.1
5. HIV is a retrovirus, which means that it has RNA not DNA. When a virus comes across a cell
it enters, after entering the cell the virus uses reverse transcription to make its RNA into DNA,
the DNA then integrates into the host DNA. e now integrated host DNA transcribes it
back into RNA so that the the Ribosomes can use the genetic information to make the proper
proteins, however, the the Ribosomes receive the viral RNA and use the genetic information to
make more viruses. ese new viruses will eventually burst out of the cell killing it in the
process. e reasons that HIV is so deadly is because it attacks the T-cells which are a group of

2. white blood cells which kill infected cells. Because HIV targets these cells there isn’t anything
to stop it. Other symptoms are caused by the viruses getting caught in the lymph nodes. 2
V. PREVENTION AND CURE:
1. ere is no working cure of vaccine for HIV.2
2. HIV can be treated by highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which is usually a
combination of at least two types of antiretroviral classes. ese two classes are usually a
protease inhibitor or a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) plus two
nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NARTIs or NRTIs).2
3. One 40 year old HIV patient was given stem cell transplants for acute myeloid leukemia and a
second transplant was made after a relapse. After 20 months without antiretroviral treatment
doctors reported that the HIV levels in the patient’s bone marrow, blood, and bowel were
below the detectable limit. e virus remained undetectable in the way for three years after the
first implant. Some call this a cure while others speculate that the virus is hidden in other
tissues such as the brain. Stem cell treatment is currently being investigated, however, mortality
risk and difficulty finding viable donors makes it a less attractive form of treatment than
antiretroviral therapy.7

3. VI. ADDITIONAL RESEARCH:
1. Why is HIV’s fast replication rate such a problem?
1. e fast replication rate of HIV causes there to be more variability in the viruses; this leads
to a single individual having multiple strains of HIV at once. Because of this normal viral
vaccination, which is done by infecting an individual with non-dangerous form of a virus
so that their immune system is able to build an immunity to it, doesn’t work as there are so
many different varieties.2
2. Why is it that HIV is so prevalent in Africa?
1. HIV is extremely prevalent in Africa because many of those those infected with HIV are
unable to receive proper medical attention and HIV positive mothers pass the virus on to
their children because breast milk is the only way they are able the feed them as infants.1
1. Pisani, E. (2011, September 3). HIV. New Scientist, 211(2828), i-8.
2. Rambaut, A., Posada, D., Crandall, K.A., & Holmes, E.C. (2004, January). e Causes and
Consequences of HIV Evolution. Nature, 5, 52-61
3. Dotinga, R. (2005, July 01). Genetic HIV Resistance Deciphered. Retrieved from
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/01/66198?currentPage=all
4. Stein, J. M. (1975). e random house college dictionary. (Revised ed., Vol. 1). New York, NY: Random
House Reference
5. e Nobel Foundation. (2012, February 28). e Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008. Retrieved
from http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/index.html
6. World Health Organization. (2011, June). World Health Organization Fact Sheets. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html
7. Rawlings, N. (2011, December 26). Untold Stories. Time, 178(25), 34. Retrieved from http://
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