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Can there be complications?
Many are the complications of HIV-AIDS because the immune system is weakened in such a way that almost any common infection can have fatal outcomes.
The most frequent complications include pneumonia, fungal lung infections, candidiasis in the mouth, esophagus and trachea, cervical cancer (in women), cytomegalovirus retinitis (resulting in total vision loss), Kaposi's sarcoma (a variant of skin cancer), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a type of leukemia), tuberculosis, salmonellosis, toxoplasmosis, among many other infectious diseases and psychological disorders.
What causes aids and how does the virus work?
AIDS (the sexual disease par excellence) is produced by a virus, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV.
This virus invades the body tissues, travelling through the bloodstream. However, it has a special predilection for CD4+ T lymphocytes, the cells in charge of identifying pathogenic microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi or other viruses) and causing their death, keeping infections at bay.
When HIV invades these cells, the body's level of defence against new infections falls and a systemic weakening occurs.
Any normally neutralised infection (such as influenza, for example) can evolve to potentially dangerous levels.
When does hiv become aids?
According to careful observations in HIV patients, AIDS (or its associated signs and symptoms) begins to take place when the cell load of CD4+ T lymphocytes falls below 200 per micro-litre of blood.
This is in most cases. However, this phenomenon can be different from person to person, especially if they have