The case of the aids patient with Pneumonia Essay

The case of the aids patient with Pneumonia - Essay Example HIV attacks any cell with this binding structure. The white blood cells or T cells of the immune system, which coordinate disease-fighting mechanisms, are especially vulnerable to HIV attack. Of these certain T cells known as CD4 cells are most vulnerable. While infecting a CD4 cell, the HIV utilizes the genetic tools within the cell to replicate itself and then leaves the cell, destroying it in the process. Medical treatment cannot eradicate HIV once it has integrated into human cells. Reduction in the number of CD4 cells exposes a person to all infections as these cells assist other types of immune cells to respond to invading organisms. There are about a1, 000 CD4 cells per micro liter of blood in an average healthy person. The HIV destroys CD4 cells over a period of time, diminishing the cells' protective ability and weakening the immune system. The infected person becomes exposed to nearly 26 infections and rare cancers, which take advantage of the weakened immune defenses to cause disease when this density reduces to 200 cells per micro liter of blood (AIDS). Retroviruses were known as RNA tumor viruses as they have RNA and not DNA, genomes. These were known to cause certain cancers in animals. Howard Temin, in the middle of the twentieth century, studied them and discovered the genetic-like stability of the uncontrolled cell growth caused by these viruses. He proposed the provirus hypothesis, in which RNA tumor viruses cause permanent alterations to cells by integrating into host chromosomes, by virion RNAs which first convert into DNAs and then become integrated (Reverse Transcriptase). HIV infection occurs when a person comes into contact with blood, semen, vaginal secretions or breast milk infected with this virus. It is acquired by having sexual relations with an infected person, using hypodermic needles or by the pricking with an infected needle and by the transfer of the virus from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breast-feeding (AIDS). Jerry is suffering from PCP, a kind of pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii (p. carinii). This afflicts People with weak immune systems. It's the most common serious infection in people with advanced HIV disease in the United States. (Pneumocystis carinii Pneumonia (PCP) and HIV). "Pneumocystis pneumonia is caused by P. carinii, a fungus formerly considered to be a protozoan. Its fungal classification is based in part on 16S ribosomal RNA similarities to fungi, particularly ascomycetes, with spore cases. Its staining with the Gomori methenamine silver stain for fungi also supports its new class ification"(Warnock. 1999). Hence the blood cultures will be negative for bacteria and antibiotics will be of no avail. Surgeons are at the greatest risk of contact with patients' blood and body fluids. Hence, breaches in gloving material are to be avoided. In a study it was found that 17.4% of the surgeons had skin abrasions. 32glove perforations were observed, of which 22were in the outer glove and 10in the inner glove. Only four outer glove perforations had matching inner glove perforations, thus indicating that in 82% of cases when the outer glove is perforated the inner glove will protect the surgeon's hand from contamination. It is recommended that double gloves are used routinely in all surgical procedures in view of the significantly higher protection it