Hollywood faces a brutal reality once again. Charlie Sheen of “Two and a half men” has admitted his HIV status to the world through an interview. Will this revelation rob him of his “well-earned” dignity and will the man with “Tiger blood” be left alone? He had been diagnosed four years ago with the virus and has no idea how it happened. Some unsavoury people made him a target for threats regarding his delicate state and he was blackmailed by a sex worker for possessing anti-retroviral drugs in his washroom. Sheen was exposed and he admitted to his HIV status! Shocking isn’t it?
HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, has the capability of destroying the human immune system, causing immune deficiency and leaving the human body helpless against disease and infections. Infections of many kinds can affect a person and leave him stranded with a compromised immune system. When HIV is in large quantities in body fluids like pre-ejaculatory fluid, semen, vaginal secretions, blood, breast milk and anal mucus, it can lead to infections. Unprotected sexual intercourse and exchange of infected needles can transfer these infected fluids into the body of another and this can spell disaster. HIV carriers can be detected only with a blood test. HIV can keep replicating inside the body for years and years without causing any damage, but this happens only if a person takes medication advised by the physicians. The anti-retroviral medication will be soon obtained as a single tablet, say the fraternity.
AIDS is the advanced stage of HIV and in this stage the CD4 T cells inside the body fall below 200 per cubic ml of blood, leading to severe infections that can’t be treated. Stage one after the infection shows up as flu like symptoms and in the second stage the person stays asymptomatic for roughly a decade. If left untreated the third stage shows up where the immune system starts getting damaged and severe infections and even disorders like cancer start developing. After this AIDS is diagnosed!
Earlier death was the only dreaded -awaited moment for HIV patients as they developed AIDS within few years of infection, but now antiretroviral treatments are available that can help people get life expectancy the same as a normal individual. People infected with HIV do not have to die; they need to get proper treatment to live a normal life. Drug resistance is a common thing and HIV patients have to take them as a hope to live a fulfilling life so correct administration is imperative. More than one drug are used as a combination treatment for HIV infected people but the medications need to be taken at the correct time in the correct manner.
It is illegal to discriminate against people who have been infected with HIV and they are permitted a guarding of their privacy because of lack of HIV education in society, but they have to inform their prospective sexual partners about their condition for the sake of consensual sex. An HIV person is punishable by law for intentionally infecting and may have to serve jail tenure for 25 years.
