Thread: AIDS and HIV question

Is it possible, that someone can have AIDS, but without any trace of HIV in his body? I've read a book where author said, that in more than 95% cases HIV is detected in AIDS patients. So im interesting in remaining 5 %

Does the book specify where that statistic is from?

I could not find a source that states that you can have AIDS without HIV in your blood.
You might want to check this out:
HIV Test Types

Originally Posted by Cogito Ergo Sum

I could not find a source that states that you can have AIDS without HIV in your blood.
You might want to check this out:
HIV Test Types

Thx, gonna check this

Does the book specify where that statistic is from?

No.

Then I wouldn't put much weight in the assertion. What book is it and who is it by?

AIDS is just a progressed stage of HIV. I don't see how someone could have the syndrome with an undetectable amount of virus.

If the book is fairly old or is using data from an old (80's or even early 90's) source, it could simply refer to the diagnoses made at a time when AIDS was diagnosed as a collection of symptoms rather than known to be the advanced stage of immunodeficiency disease caused by HIV.

It's "It takes a genome" by G. Gibson and its a book from 2009.

Heres one of the Academic reviews i found for the book, it and the two star rating on Amazon are not good indicators for the book.

Book Review of "It Takes a Genome. How a clash between our genes and modern life is making us sick", by Greg Gibson | Bart Penders - Academia.edu

Someone can develop AIDS then start treatment causing the number of HIV to drop below detectable levels. Once a person's T-cell count drops below 200 cells per unit of measure they are classified as having AIDS. If their T-cell count rebounds to normal levels they are still considered to have AIDS. Once you have the AIDS label the CDC does not remove it from you under any circumstances. Usually because at that point you have enough damage to your body to still classify as suffering from the condition.

So it is technically possible to have AIDS but have no detectible levels of HIV in your blood stream. This is the goal of HIV treatment practitioners. To have all their patients at undetectable levels and their T-cells at normal levels (any where above 800).

Originally Posted by seagypsy

Someone can develop AIDS then start treatment causing the number of HIV to drop below detectable levels. Once a person's T-cell count drops below 200 cells per unit of measure they are classified as having AIDS. If their T-cell count rebounds to normal levels they are still considered to have AIDS. Once you have the AIDS label the CDC does not remove it from you under any circumstances. Usually because at that point you have enough damage to your body to still classify as suffering from the condition.

So it is technically possible to have AIDS but have no detectible levels of HIV in your blood stream. This is the goal of HIV treatment practitioners. To have all their patients at undetectable levels and their T-cells at normal levels (any where above 800).

So 5% of AIDS patients have undetectable levels of the virus? Just recently there was one child who ended up having undetectable levels of HIV after early treatment and the media went crazy. If this were the case in 5% of patients, I don't know why it seemed like such a big deal at the time. Then again, it is the media.

Originally Posted by mat5592

Originally Posted by seagypsy

Someone can develop AIDS then start treatment causing the number of HIV to drop below detectable levels. Once a person's T-cell count drops below 200 cells per unit of measure they are classified as having AIDS. If their T-cell count rebounds to normal levels they are still considered to have AIDS. Once you have the AIDS label the CDC does not remove it from you under any circumstances. Usually because at that point you have enough damage to your body to still classify as suffering from the condition.

So it is technically possible to have AIDS but have no detectible levels of HIV in your blood stream. This is the goal of HIV treatment practitioners. To have all their patients at undetectable levels and their T-cells at normal levels (any where above 800).

So 5% of AIDS patients have undetectable levels of the virus? Just recently there was one child who ended up having undetectable levels of HIV after early treatment and the media went crazy. If this were the case in 5% of patients, I don't know why it seemed like such a big deal at the time. Then again, it is the media.

Media likes to spin things, but honestly unless they give some hopeful news people stop giving money to research. Undetectable levels in your blood stream make the odds of passing it on to a partner if say a condom slips off or is "forgotten", is next to nil. It also means that pregnant hiv+ mothers are less likely to pass it to their unborn child. So having people with AIDS become undetectable, and stay undetectable, reduces or slows the spread of the disease and this is always a good thing.

These days though, they rarely wait until you have AIDS to start you on treatment. So if they looked at how many people had tested positive for HIV were having negative levels, the percentage would be higher. I don't know how much but it would be higher I am sure. With the treatment given early fewer and fewer people are progressing into having AIDS.

Originally Posted by mat5592

Originally Posted by seagypsy

Someone can develop AIDS then start treatment causing the number of HIV to drop below detectable levels. Once a person's T-cell count drops below 200 cells per unit of measure they are classified as having AIDS. If their T-cell count rebounds to normal levels they are still considered to have AIDS. Once you have the AIDS label the CDC does not remove it from you under any circumstances. Usually because at that point you have enough damage to your body to still classify as suffering from the condition.

So it is technically possible to have AIDS but have no detectible levels of HIV in your blood stream. This is the goal of HIV treatment practitioners. To have all their patients at undetectable levels and their T-cells at normal levels (any where above 800).

So 5% of AIDS patients have undetectable levels of the virus? Just recently there was one child who ended up having undetectable levels of HIV after early treatment and the media went crazy. If this were the case in 5% of patients, I don't know why it seemed like such a big deal at the time. Then again, it is the media.

I remember that. The media went crazy not because their levels became undetectable in the first place, but because they didn't rise again after treatment was stopped.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mississ...ry?id=18645410