Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Fact Sheet

AIDS is a condition where the immune system is compromised and is no longer working properly, due to HIV disease. HIV has attacked the immune system cells and has diminished the CD4 cells to less than 200. This means the body is open to many different infections. A person can also have an AIDS diagnosis with CD4 cells over 200, when clinically diagnosed with one or more of the CDC defined Opportunistic Infections (OI). *

An AIDS diagnosis does not mean that a person is going to die, although it does mean that the Health Care Team needs to be aware that the person they are treating is susceptible to many infections. Many of these infections are acquired before the person became HIV+, their immune system is no longer able to help keep the infections from causing disease (ie. Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP), Herpes Simplex, Varicella Zoster, to name a few). Others can be acquired after infection (Herpes Simplex, Cryptosporidium, and Coccidioidomycosis, to name a few).

At this point many people with AIDS might discuss with their health care provider prophylaxis for possible OI's. This is medication given to a person to prevent an OI from occurring. The most common occurrence of this is PCP prophylaxis for people with CD4 counts less than 200; Bactrim Double Strength is the usual medication prescribed, and many times only needed, 3 times a week.

For many people living with HIV, an AIDS diagnosis can mean something different for them. It might mean for them that they are dying. It might mean that they believe they are sick. Any label that we place on people can mean many different things to different people. So people must be careful and conscious of how they speak of things such as illnesses and allow people to tell us what specific labels mean for them. *

They are listed as:

Pneumocystis Pneumonia
Toxoplasmic Encephalitis
Cryptosporidiosis
Microsporidiosis
Tuberculosis
Disseminated infection with mycobacterium Avium Complex
Bacterial Respiratory Infections (recurrent)
Bacterial Enteric Infections (recurrent)
Candidiasis
Cryptococcus
Histoplasmosis
Coccidioidomycosis
Cytomegalovirus
Herpes Simplex Virus Disease (recurrent)
Varicella Zoster Virus Disease (recurrent)
Kaposi's Sarcoma (Human Herpes Virus-8 Infection)
Human Papillomavirus Infection (recurrent active disease)
Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Bartonellosis

Also, there is a list of Severely Symptomatic illnesses for people with HIV that include the following diagnoses:

-Cervical Cancer that is invasive.
-Encephalopathy
-Isosporiasis, intestinal, for more than one month.
-Lymphoma, Burkitt's
-Lymphoma, immunoblastic.
-Lymphoma, primary, of the brain.
-Mycobacterium tuberculosis
-Infection with Mycobacterium species other than those listed above, including unidentified species that cause disseminated or extrapulmonary infection.
-Pneumonia, recurrent, other than PCP
-Progressive Multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML)
-Salmonella septicemia, recurrent.
-Wasting Syndrome due to HIV.
-CD4 count <200 or <14%