Question

AIDS in a 29-Year-Old Man

Jason Mitchell was a 19-year-old student at the University of Oregon who had been in relatively good health throughout his life. He was a distance runner on the cross-country and track teams at the university. In the early part of January 1982 he developed a mild fever, lymphadenopathy, sore throat, and excessive fatigue, particularly after completing a training session. Although he was already thin yet fit due to his athletic regimen, he began losing weight. He consulted the athletic trainer who believed that his symptoms were simply those of a driven athlete who was under stress due to academics and the pressure of training for highly competitive meets. Jason was not entirely convinced, so he sought advice from a local clinician. The clinician concluded that the symptoms were indicative of infectious mononucleosis.

After three weeks the symptoms went away and Jason felt considerably better. He excelled in cross-country and track and graduated with honors near the top of his class in the spring of 1985. After graduating, he continued to train as a semi-professional runner, preparing for and participating in international meets and races.

Seven years after graduating Jason noticed several brown papules on the skin of his feet. After consultation with a physician, the raised lesions were diagnosed as malignant and multifocal neoplasm indicative of Kaposi's Sarcoma. ELISA and western blot confirmed infection with HIV. Additionally, he was shown to have a rapid increase in serum levels of IgG and IgA consistent with clinical signs associated with AIDS, which he was diagnosed as having based on symptoms and laboratory findings. Jason was familiar with HIV infection and its ramifications, but he continued to work out and convinced himself that by doing so the HIV infection and concomitant symptoms of AIDS would go away.

Several months after his diagnosis he suffered from a bout of pneumonia. Laboratory analysis confirmed that the pneumonia was caused by Pneumocystis carinii, one of the organisms commonly associated with AIDS. An analysis of his blood at this time indicated that he had 300 CD4+ T lymphocytes per microliter of blood (normal = 800 - 1200 cells/L). Within one month, not fully recovered from pneumonia, Jason became infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and presented with symptoms characteristic of tuberculosis. The organism disseminated throughout his body, also in keeping with AIDS, and he died several weeks later despite exhaustive treatment with antimicrobials for tuberculosis and zidovudine (AZT), dideoxyinosine, and dideoxycytidine for AIDS. At his first consultation for disseminated tuberculosis, blood work showed his CD4+ T lymphocyte count to be 40 cells/mm3.

Case Study Questions:

AIDS is a fairly unique disease, the causative agent of which is a retrovirus. What characterizes a retrovirus?

How is HIV transmitted?

Are there any additional risks for health care workers?

Are there some individuals who have been infected with HIV for a long time but have not yet progressed to AIDS?

Do those infected individuals who have not progressed to AIDS have immune system characteristics that those who do progress do not have?

What cell types of the human host carry HIV?

What are some of the structural features of HIV that may be relevant in understanding the virus?

How does HIV gain access to host cells?

What is the difference between AIDS-related complex and full-blown AIDS?

AIDS may initially manifest as persistent generalized lymphadenopathy syndrome. What does this mean?

When an individual becomes infected with HIV, what symptoms will he or she exhibit?

How many types of HIV are known to be in existence?

How did HIV arrive in the human population?

Because infection with HIV does not result in elimination of the virus by the immune system, does this mean that the immune system does not respond?

What happens to T cells in an individual who is infected with HIV?

As of 1999, what are the statistics in terms of how many people are infected with HIV and mortality associated with the virus?

What is the recommended treatment today for AIDS?

Discuss your opinions/thoughts on the term “Pharma Bro” and its impact on AIDS.

Answer 1

Answer 1 retroviruses are those virus which have RNA as a genetic material. An then they make DNA from RNA and then insert it into human DNA.

Answer 2. HIV is transmitted from infected person with HIV, i.e by blood transfusion or using same syringe used for injecting HIV infected person. Multiple relationships unknowingly someone can be infected with HIV.

Answer 3 There might be risk for health worker as HIV infected person during injection by incidentally syringe cut or pierce the skin of health care person then they might get affected.

Answer 4. Actually HIV weakens the immunity system as it infect the CD 4+ T cells of immunity, HIV takes time of around 10-15 years for showing it serious symptom. AIDS is the last stage of HIV infection where a person can not recover from HIV, and the immunity of patient is weakens.