AIDS is one of the deadliest diseases that has spread all over the globe like an epidemic within a very short time span of 50 - 60 years. Official statistics indicate that the AIDS pandemic claimed approximately 3.1 million lives in 2005, of which 570,000 deaths were of innocent children afflicted with this disease. This does not include the large number of unreported cases from all over the globe owing to the stigma associated with it, which causes the development of shame, guilt, and hopelessness to set in.
The early symptoms of HIV infection, which develops within 3 to 6 weeks of exposure to the HIV virus, is similar to that of flu and the person may experience mild fever, a dull headache, severe exhaustion, a persistent vomiting sensation, episodes of diarrhea, sore throat and enlarged lymph nodes, accompanied by body rash. However, these symptoms are short lived and disappear within a week or maximum within a month of contacting the infection. Thereafter, the person experiences no symptoms at all.
But this silent asymptomatic phase is the period when the HIV virus will be actively multiplying in the host's lymph nodes, infecting the helper T cells (CD4 lymphocytes) and destroying the white blood cells, thereby weakening the immune system of the individual completely. The length of the asymptomatic phase varies from person to person and can even extend from a few months to almost a decade. The count of the helper T cells (CD4 lymphocytes) begins to drop from 600 to less than 200 and the person's immunity gets drastically reduced. This makes the person more prone to other types of infections.
