Aids

HIV must be considered as a diagnostic possibility in any patient with a new-onset seizure. CNS disease is seen in most AIDS patients during the course of their illness. In 10% to 20% of AIDS patients, CNS disease is the initial manifestation of AIDS. Up to 50% of AIDS patients with seizures have no specific. CNS lesion identified, and the seizure is presumed to be caused by HIV infection. Secondary causes of seizures include toxoplasmosis, cryptococcal meningitis, herpes encephalitis, syphilis, lymphoma, and tuberculosis. Toxoplasmosis is the most common opportunistic infection that causes seizures in AIDS patients.

Causes

Human immunodeficiency virus means HIV causes AIDS. The virus attacks the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to a variety of life-threatening infections and cancers.

HIV has been found in saliva, tears, nervous system tissue and spinal fluid, blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk. However, only blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk generally transmit infection to others.

Transmission of the virus occurs:

• Through sexual contact -- including oral, vaginal, and anal sex
• Through blood -- via blood transfusions
• Needle sharing
• Mother to child -- a pregnant woman can transmit the virus to her fetus through their shared blood circulation, or a nursing mother can transmit it to her baby in her milk

Symptoms

• The most common CNS symptoms in HIV-positive patients are seizures, altered mentation, headache, or neuropathy.

Signs

• The examination can range from normal to very abnormal.
• Patients with AIDS-related seizures often have other signs of AIDS (thrush, wasting, Kaposi's lesions, and so forth).
• Most patients with a secondary CNS infection as the cause of seizure have a focal neurologic examination.

Treatment

Steps to HIV/AIDS Treatment :

Nutrition is an most important part of any HIV care package. Nutritional care and support includes many components, and particularly when a person is asymptomatic, it must include an adequate quantity. But improved nutrition is not enough in itself to permanently keep people healthy. Countries, developed opportunistic infections, progressed to AIDS and died, even though they had an excellent diet. But good nutrition may help prolong the period of time between HIV infection and the onset of OIs.

Nutrition plays an most important role in regard to the provision of antiretroviral drugs. The effects of ARVs are less known in people with poor nutritional diets than in people with good nutritional diets.

Antiretroviral therapy suppresses the replication of the HIV virus in the body. A combination of several antiretroviral agents, HAART means termed highly active antiretroviral therapy , has been highly effective in reducing the number of HIV particles in the blood stream, as measured by a blood test called the viral load. This can help the immune system recover from the HIV infection and improve T-cell counts.