HIV/AIDS

For a lay person:

HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system; without treatment it can progress to AIDS, when the body can no longer fight off serious infections and some cancers. It is spread through blood, sex and from mother to baby, and modern treatment allows people with HIV to live long, healthy lives.

For a trained medical person:

HIV-1 and HIV-2 infect CD4 T cells, causing progressive immunodeficiency; AIDS is defined by a low CD4 count or an AIDS-defining opportunistic infection or malignancy. Diagnosis is by fourth-generation antigen-antibody testing with confirmatory assays, then viral load, CD4 count and resistance testing. All people with HIV are offered antiretroviral therapy as soon as possible, with opportunistic-infection prophylaxis as indicated; an undetectable viral load prevents sexual transmission.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Beginning Stage (Hidden Evil Pathogens); Late Stage (Zheng Qi Deficiency); Lung and Stomach Yin Deficiency; Spleen and Stomach Deficiency; Spleen and Kidney Deficiency; Excess Heat with Phlegm Misting. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: HIV needs antiretroviral treatment from an HIV specialist, and Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most. Some herbs, including St John's wort, interact dangerously with antiretroviral drugs, so tell your HIV team about every herb or supplement; get urgent care for high fever, breathlessness, severe headache or confusion.