HIV is transmitted by blood or sexual contact. With symptoms ranging from none to flu-like, most people with HIV never even notice it until later stages of the disease. At UVA’s Ryan White Clinic, we offer extensive treatments and management for patients with HIV. Infectious Diseases Physician Patrick Jackson, MD, explains HIV and how ongoing treatment can lead patients to a long and fulfilling life.
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HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. It’s a virus that’s transmitted by blood or sexual contact, and it attacks the immune system. Untreated, what happens is folks that have HIV eventually have their immune system suppressed to the point that other infections can start to crop up; pneumonia, thrush, and other sorts of things that we’d rarely see in other people who have intact immune systems.
People who have newly acquired HIV sometimes will have flu-like symptoms or mononucleosis symptoms; things like a rash, a sore throat, a fever. But those aren’t terribly common and lots of people who have HIV never even notice that. Most people who have HIV have absolutely no symptoms until they reach later stages of the disease. In later stages of the disease, folks can notice weight loss, fevers, night sweats, swelling of lymph nodes, things along those lines. But it’s really non-specific, so it’s important that people get tested.
We have really fantastic treatments for HIV. For everyone who has HIV, we recommend antiretroviral therapy or ART. This is almost always a combination of three drugs that work together to combat the HIV virus to make sure the virus is no longer growing in the blood, and to help protect the person’s immune system. Usually today, we can give all three of those drugs in a single tablet one time of day, and the side effects are very minimal.
HIV treatment is for life. We have fantastic treatments for HIV, but we don’t have any cure. If someone stops HIV treatment kind of midway, the virus can come back and the immune system can come down. But people who are on treatment, and who are regularly seeing their physician can have long and full lives and do everything that someone without HIV can do. They can work. They can play. They can have relationships. They can have children. And really no real limitations as long as they remain on treatment.
Our Ryan White Clinic sees more than 700 patients from about 25 counties from around this part of Virginia. We have a variety of folks who’ve been involved in treating HIV since the very early days of the epidemic and have a lot of expertise. And we also have providers who are really deeply involved in HIV research. And our goal is to provide the very best treatment possible.
