BIOL 301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Seroconversion, Opportunistic Infection, Incubation Period

• School: George Mason University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 301
• Professor: Kocache

Document Summary

Biological indicators for hiv disease: hiv infects cd4+ cells and kills them. Hiv increases body wide inflammation which causes heart attacks and strokes. Hiv is a chronic infection and thus even patients with undetectable viral load are being harmed by the inflammation. In the early 1980s, diagnosis associated with early and quick death; not much known about the disease: by the mid-1980s, hiv infection resulted in non-specific disease; aids. Short acute phase of fever and mononucleosis like symptoms, followed by asymptomatic period. Loss of cd4+ cells over time with opportunistic infection occurring later: more rapid development of immune deficiency correlates with: infection with virulent strains of. Rapid replication, syncytium-inducing (rapid progression), specificity for certain types of. Long period of fever at time of infection, long lasting symptomatic primary period predicts an increased risk of progression (acute phase of seroconversion: spectrum of hiv disease. At one end of the spectrum you have an individual may feel, look, and are perfectly healthy.