People living with HIV

 

People living with HIV (PLWH) who continue to engage in health-damaging behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, free sex, drug abuse and addiction will be faced with, severe disease progression, poorer treatment outcome, and lower quality of life.

People Living with HIV (PLWH) experience chronic inflammatory diseases. Inflammatory markers are elevated throughout the asymptomatic phase of infection and correlate with the rate of progression to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The primary cellular targets of HIV are CD4+ T cells. Meanwhile, CD4+ T cells, or helper T cells that plays a key role in organize the host immune response to pathogens or infection. The number of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), such as CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells, was decreased in HIV patients.

In fact, HIV patients are more prone to developing tuberculosis (TBC), which has been associated with an increased incidence of additional co-infection or opportunistic infections, and may be an independent risk factor for progression to AIDS, while TBC is a small part of an opportunistic infection  that can lead to severe disease progression.

Unfortunately, many HIV-TBC patients with AIDS have probably gone undiagnosed in the past due to economic and other factors or the patients did not want to be test. HIV-TBC coinfection has a lower cure rate and higher mortality rate than infection with HIV or TBC alone. The interaction between these pathogens contributes substantially to the high incidence of mortality associated with co-infection.

Finally, People Living with HIV face great stress, terrible life situations and worry about the future, which predisposes them to an increased risk of mental disorders. From a research indicated that PLWHs with poor social support were over two times more likely to develop depression than those with strong social support. It is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among PLWH and is associated with decreased immunity function.

However, the PLWH also proactively seek social support. Please help them deal with the challenges and difficulties.

References:

1. Zongyan Liu et al. HIV-related stress predicts depression over five years among people living with HIV. 2023

2. Li Liet al. Clinical symptoms and immune injury reflected by low CD4/CD8 ratio should increase the suspicion of HIV coinfection with tuberculosis, 2023