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Author Topic: HIV disease VS. AIDS  (Read 19721 times)

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Offline Matty the Damned

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  • Antipodean in every sense of the word
Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #50 on: August 20, 2007, 07:44:11 pm »
Fuckin' A Miss Betty.

Even though some HIVers might try you can't sanitise this disease. AIDS is AIDS and no matter how much people might wanna hide behind the "Advanced HIV Disease" label, you can't.

Get used to it.

MtD

Offline AlanBama

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #51 on: August 20, 2007, 08:12:16 pm »
honey, if the TERM bothers you, all I can say is "fasten your seatbelt, it's going to be a bumpy night"

I WISH that was all I had to worry about....

PS - thanks Tim for eloquently stating what I am thinking but can't muster up enough brain cells to crank it out..... ;)
"Remember my sentimental friend that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others." - The Wizard of Oz

Offline GSOgymrat

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  • HIV+ since 1993. Relentlessly gay.
Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #52 on: August 21, 2007, 11:06:44 am »
Forget "advanced HIV disease." If we are going to re-label this disease just to make ourselves feel better lets pick a really fun name like boogie woogie flu or something.

Offline pozniceguy

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #53 on: August 21, 2007, 11:20:12 am »
I think that somewhere in these threads  it was pointed out that there is a "political" element to the labels...not purely a medical nomenclature.....to get the funding and political support the scare of AIDS was widely spread and  accepted to the point of political action.....thus the programs and various funding sources for "AIDS" persons were created...if it was just another virus  I doubt that money would be available to day.......If you really want special recognition,  I agree with Ford...give it a catchy name.....   maybe hold a contest to provide one of those double entendre type of acronyms....

Nick
remember the good times...honor the past but don't live there
Le stelle la notte sono grandie luminose, nel cuore profondo del Texas

Offline Cerrid

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #54 on: August 21, 2007, 12:01:30 pm »
Forget "advanced HIV disease." If we are going to re-label this disease just to make ourselves feel better lets pick a really fun name like boogie woogie flu or something.

Absolutely. How about "a persistent affinity to gp120"?  ;D
"Boredom is always counterrevolutionary. Always." (Guy Debord)

Offline Moffie65

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #55 on: August 21, 2007, 12:22:40 pm »
I have watched this thread since it was posted, and it disturbs me that nobody has mentioned the science behind these two labels.

HIV is first and foremost an acronym which simply defines the virus which we carry.
AIDS is the acronym which defines what has happened to our immune systems due to the presence, and growth of the virus in our immune cells.

When someone gets to the point of having a very low CD4, they have lost a very large proportion of their immune cells.  These are the longest living cells in the body, with an average lifespan of 74 years.  The programming starts at birth, which is one of the reasons as children we are subjected to most of the communicable diseases we are going to confront in our lifetimes.  When one has this "bank vault" full of defense mechanism destroyed by HIV, then we can become very ill from simply a cold, due to the lack of defense cells.  In my case I was down to 20 CD4s which have now been built back up to above the 600 mark over a 14 year period. 

However, these new cells have not been subjected to nearly the amount of diseases and germs that the ones I lost were, and so that is why our "rebuilt" immune systems are called  "naive".  This is the main reason why it is very important for people who have had the "Label" AIDS applied to them to keep it near and close to their hearts.  It gives the doctors in the future an idea how weak our new immune systems are, and they are then able to watch out for things which might damage us more than a person who has never advanced to AIDS. 

Therefore, for those of you who have been labeled as having AIDS, I would humbly suggest that you keep that label, as it will offer information to an Infectious Disease doctor that the label of HIV will simply not do.  For those of you who want to rid yourselves of the label AIDS, go ahead and do so, but it changes nothing in your body, and will do nothing to change your physical being at all.

I think it far better medicine to simply accept this bug as part of your new body and move on.  Labels change nothing, but hold a wealth of information for the doctors who you will be subject to for the rest of your life.

FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!!!!

Cheers!
The Bible contains 6 admonishments to homosexuals,
and 362 to heterosexuals.
This doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals,
It's just that they need more supervision.
Lynn Lavne

Offline BT65

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #56 on: August 21, 2007, 01:27:47 pm »
Hey Moffie:
   Good to see you again!  Thanks for that insightful explanation.
I've never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.-Clarence Darrow

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Offline thunter34

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  • His name is Carl.
Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #57 on: August 21, 2007, 06:28:45 pm »
Moffie:  I once again bow to you, sir.
AIDS isn't for sissies.

Offline whizzer

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #58 on: August 21, 2007, 06:59:39 pm »
Forget "advanced HIV disease." If we are going to re-label this disease just to make ourselves feel better lets pick a really fun name like boogie woogie flu or something.

I've always been partial to "fuck flu"

-Whiz
(who is in the AIDS column on the CDC spreadsheet, and who is more concerned about his health than the label placed on it)

Offline BassMan

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  • Gran Canaria 2006
Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #59 on: August 22, 2007, 04:36:05 am »
I agree with Whiz in that I'm more interested in my level of health and how I feel than the label placed on it. The problem I have with the term AIDS is that often it doesn't really tell me much about the overall health of the individual concerned, merely that they have met a very narrow set of medical criteria.

I consider myself extremely fortunate: I am one of the fittest and healthiest people in my family and social circle, most of whom are HIV-ve and younger than me. I take plenty of exercise and recently ran the 10Km Manchester run in 48minutes, which isn't bad for a 45 year old! My numbers are good: the last two year average has been VL undetectable and CD4 around 730. Yet, because I developed half a dozen KS lesions three years ago with a CD4 around 400 (which were successfully treated and I'm now completely clear of it) I was given an AIDS diagnosis.

I find that difficult to reconcile with someone who finds themself at the other end of the "sliding scale," who may be seriously ill from battling multiple OI's and have few if any treatment options left. We both have AIDS, yet the label tells us very little about our relative situations.

I won't consider myself to have AIDS until I find myself at the wrong end of the scale. For now, I'm healthily HIV+ve, whatever the strict clinical label might be.

Carl
Manchester, UK
Diagnosed December 2002
CD4 810 VL 750,000

Started meds October 2004
CD4 405 VL >100,000

Latest Results: October 2009
CD4 888 38%, VL undetectable
on fosamprenavir/ritonavir & Truvada

VL undetectable since November 2005

Offline Queen Tokelove

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  • Smokey the Smurf
Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #60 on: August 22, 2007, 05:23:01 am »
Good to see you post, Moffie. And has never looked at the term in the way you have shown. I will definitely take that to heart when I finally get my AIDS diagnosis....
Started Atripla/Ziagen on 9/13/07.
10/31/07 CD4-265 VL- undetectable
2/6/08 CD4- 401 VL- undetectable
5/7/08 CD4- 705 VL- undetectable
6/4/08 CD4- 775 VL- undetectable
8/6/08 CD4- 805 VL- undetectable
11/13/08 CD4- 774 VL--undetectable
2/4/09  CD4- 484  VL- 18,000 (2 months off meds)
3/3/09---Starting Back on Meds---
4/27/09 CD4- 664 VL-- undetectable
6/17/09 CD4- 438 VL- 439
8/09 CD4- 404 VL- 1,600
01-22-10-- CD4- 525 VL- 59,000
Cherish the simple things life has to offer

Offline JamieD

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #61 on: August 22, 2007, 05:43:07 am »
Oh wait, you're right. In most countries outside of the US (and I said MOST, not all for you F*cking nit pickers) a CD4 count below 200 is not suffienct for a diagnosis of "AIDS". They usually require an OI to go along with it.

All I would need to do is move back to my other country and I will no longer have "AIDS", since I have never had any time of OI.

Why yes, checking my countries criteria for AIDS, which I think is WHO and not my countries, but anywho:

Los pacientes que se infectan con el VIH deben resolver los criterios siguientes antes de que la diagnosis del SIDA sea dada: Una cuenta de la célula CD4 de menos entonces 200 y una de las infecciones siguientes de Opportunistic:

¿Candidiasis de bronquios, de la tráquea, o del candidiasis de los pulmones (véase las infecciones fungicidas), (véase las infecciones fungicidas) cáncer cervical del esófago, invasor? ¿Coccidioidomycosis, (véase las infecciones fungicidas) cryptococcosis diseminado, (véase las infecciones fungicidas) Cryptosporidiosis extrapulmonary, (duración de 1 mes) (véase las enfermedades entéricas) encefalopatía intestinal crónica del retinitis del cytomegalovirus de la enfermedad del cytomegalovirus (con excepción del hígado, del bazo, o de nodos de linfa) (con la pérdida de visión), VIH-RELACIONADA? (véase la demencia) simplex del herpes: ¿el ulcer(s) crónico (duración de 1 mes) o la bronquitis, pneumonitis, o la histoplasmosis del esophagitis, diseminaron (véase las infecciones fungicidas) Isosporiasis, intestinal crónico (duración de 1 mes) (véase las enfermedades entéricas) el linfoma del sarcoma de Kaposi, linfoma de Burkitt, linfoma, primarios immunoblastic, del complejo o de la enfermedad del avium del mycobacterium del cerebro (linfoma primario del sistema nervioso central) causada por M. Kansasii, enfermedad diseminada causada por la tuberculosis de Mycobacterium, sitio (pulmonar? o extrapulmonary?) ¿(véase la tuberculosis) enfermedad causada por el Mycobacterium, la otra especie o la especie no identificada, pulmonía diseminada de la pulmonía del carinii de Pneumocystis, recurrente? (véase las infecciones bacterianas) el septicemia leukoencephalopathy multifocal progresivo de las salmonelas, (véase las infecciones bacterianas) toxoplasmosis recurrente del cerebro (encefalitis) que pierde el síndrome causado por la infección del VIH.


I think the thing I post was just a spanish version of what Daschud posted. They seem almost identical.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2007, 05:44:59 am by JamieD »

Offline RapidRod

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #62 on: August 22, 2007, 06:56:15 am »
Jamie, do you live in the U.S. or not? If you live in the U.S. and yes Miami is in the U.S., a CD4 of 200 or less is an AIDS classification in the U.S.. No one really cares if you like the classification or not, that's how it's listed in the State and National Data base in the U.S.. 

Offline JamieD

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #63 on: August 22, 2007, 07:07:15 am »
It was a joke. Sheesh.

Where did I say anything about Miami?  ???

Offline RapidRod

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Re: HIV disease VS. AIDS
« Reply #64 on: August 22, 2007, 07:20:15 am »
Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me for saying Miami. While were on the discussion, the UNAIDS also goes by the CDC definition of given for AIDS. So it doesn't matter where you live or your from, if you fall within those guidelines that is the classification one receives. All it is, is a classification and it has nothing to do with the way one feels health wise. It's more or less used for surveillance purposes and getting assistance and money allocations.

 


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