HIV infection in the practice of a family doctor and the possibility of AIDS therapy

Abstract

AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, was originally defined by the Centers for Disease Control as "the presence of a reliably diagnosable disease in which there is at least a mild defect in cell-mediated immunity". The modern definition includes the presence of a group of various disorders caused by opportunistic flora, diagnosed presumably or definitively in individuals with laboratory-proven HIV infection in the absence of other reliable causes of immunodeficiency. From a practical standpoint, the clinician should consider HIV infection as a spectrum of disorders ranging from primary infection, with or without acute HIV syndrome, and asymptomatic infection to overt disease. This article is devoted to the issues of classification, clinical symptoms, and approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of secondary immunodeficiency disorders on the example of AIDS caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).