Hiv

[RED NOVA 0]

My cousin has the HIV virus, not aids. He used to inject needles (drugs). Now he needs help, hes afraid to go to the docter. Every 5 seconds he says hes going to die! Now he thinks negative about his life, and had some suicidal thoughts. My dad thinks hes going crazy. I wanna help him, any way i can?

[OpaQue 15]

that sucks! Damn... get him some councelling or something ... and if possible, get him out of time to some hilly areas ( much closer to nature ) . May be that will change his mind and refresh his thoughts. Give him a vaccation and I hope things will be fine and back to normal. Hiv is no longer fatal. If treated properly, one can lead a perfectly normal life. so tell him to chill. but I suggest, let him have a vaccation atleast for a month or 2. that will definately make him feel better.

[Webz 0]

have they yet come up with a sure curetreatment.. i mean a one jab does it allkinda cure. they have been doing researchon this like forever. and spent billions doing it.

[spawn_syxx9 1]

The way to help him is to better understand the disease. It is good that you realize the difference between HIV and AIDS. That helps first off because it should give the person a little hope. There have been lots of people who are HIV positive but live to be very odl and live full lives. Just be there and talk to him when he gets down. Sooner or later try to educate him on it and do have him go to the doctor ASAP.

[Mr. Cheeky 0]

man thats terrible.. 2 people with HIV/AIDS came to my school to talk about it and it changed their lives forever.. they have to eat even though they are never hungry.. and they have to smoke medical marajuina to make them hungry.. and they have to eat some medicine that looks like a peice of chalk and its basically the same size and its large enough to choke on.. im glad we live in an age where we can make a difference about all of this

[spawn_syxx9 1]

That is good to hear that we do live in an age where we can solve a lot of medical problems and even try to find complete cures.

[Mr. Cheeky 0]

im wondering when there will be a cure for cancer.. millions of dollars goes into cancer research but not much is discovered. its a good thing they have ads and such for stuff to prevent aids/hiv. on the news it said that a lot ot teens are choosing not to engage in sexual activity and when they do, they will use protection.

[spawn_syxx9 1]

Cancer is a much bigger threat because that is practially the body working against itself where as with HIV and AIDS, you usually contract those from someone.

[googlue 0]

Okay, if he is HIV positive and not yet AIDS, he need not worry too much. Get a CD4 lymphocyte count done on him... If that is more than 500 cells/cumm, he is not at risk of any opportunistic infections. But if it is below that level, he has to be started on anti-retroviral drugs like Zidovudine, Lamivudine etc. These drugs help in elevating his CD4 count that is responsible for our immunity.In which country are you and your cousin living?

[osknockout 0]

I'm sticking with spawn and Opaque here. Stick the idea intohis head that he has a good chance to live. Sure he probablywon't ever have children, but it's life.Googlue's right actually. If he starts taking antiretroviral vaccines,he has a modest chance of keeping it at bay or even getting ridof it. The MDs might actually use a natural selection treatmentmethod. -That should save him 50% the medical expenses ;)For those guys wondering about the cure of hiv and cancer:I'll stick to the topic first. Hiv is a virus which constantly changesits surface proteins. Boom. There goes a 2000 year oldtreatment called the vaccine. One thing, CD4 receptors onkiller [or helper? can't remember] T-cells can't distinguishbetween HIV and another protein. So you can't assist the bodyin stopping this thing. Also, every time that a drug comes out,it mutates. There goes another. Well, you're down to none ofthe old ones. Of course you need to spend billions of dollarsand years in research. This thing needs new methods! Bestway is to target weaknesses in the retroviral infection system.possible research now is interferon and reverse transcriptaseinhibitors. -after all, the body doesn't use reverse transcriptaseCancer - a generic name for several thousand types of abnormally long-livedgrowths. Those things learn how to feed themselves off of the body. Whatscientists found out is that some mussels never get cancer -so they're tryingto see how that happens although it's not fully verified.

[JasperIk 0]

When [or roughly when] did contract the virus?The unfornanate thing about HIV, is that it can take a year, or 10 years before it becomes AIDS. They say the average is 8 years, but its really not true. But if he has just HIV, and say he has only had it for maybe a year or two, he has a good chance of remaining healthy. You can't always fix what is already broken, but you can try and prevent it from breaking more [This reffering to his health] When did he find out that he had it? Because sometimes people go through a lot of things, when they find out. He could be in shock, or denial. A lot of people get depressed about having HIV, because its almost always [especially now] 'their' fault. Its not like some genetic disease, or anything its caused by "stupid actions"...so he is probably blaming himself, feeling completly at fault. And the media isnt always helpful, with its sex leads to AIDS, using drugs leads to AIDS. People make bad choices, and sometimes have to pay for them dramatically. He also may be feeling down, because of his meds. If he has just started taking them, they might be making him feel worse rather then better, and he may be thinking 'what is the point-i just feel worse' But it takes awhile for the meds to work [it is like this with most meds] I suggest he should go to support groups, with other people with HIV. Because itll probably be easier if he does, it will help him realize he isn't the only person with it. But honestly if he just has HIV, he has a huge chance to help himself. Just try to pull him out of any depression he might have. Support, can often help more then meds. Honestly, because the mind will kill you faster then the virus in many cases. I would say more, but everyone else has pretty much covered T-cells, CD4, and Viral Load count. On a side note, its nice [bad choice of word i suppose] to see other people that know about HIV/AIDS i often come to boards and have to explain EVERYTHING.

[friend9 0]

The most main thing here is to understand that many people cope to live with HIV during really long time without problems. I know a person and know very well who is infected from 2000 and he managed to cope with that. MAIN IS not to think all the time about that, very many people also have cancer, but they live for a long time, nobody knows when they willdie, a healthy person can go outside and die cause of a car cresh. Tell him that if he does not keep being nervous about that, eats well and so on, he will live really for a long time. Some people accept that as an ordinary illness and that is right approach. And finally who knows when there will be cure for that? maybe after 3 years or 2.