Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) became a significant threat to the world when they were discovered in the 1980s. After that, these diseases started attacking millions of people in all world countries, causing severe health problems and resulting in death. Since then, medical professionals have achieved essential success in the field of curing HIV and AIDS. As a result, better treatment of the illnesses globally and especially in Africa has contributed to a longer life expectancy of the patients. At the same time, better medicine has exposed HIV-positive individuals to fewer opportunistic infections (OIs) and more comorbidities. Thus, the principal purpose of this paper is to explain why improved treatment implies such controversial outcomes.
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The diseases under consideration significantly decreased the duration of life of the affected population in the late 20th-early 21st century. For example, Teeraananchai et al. (2017) explain that “life expectancy deteriorated to 49.5 years” in sub-Saharan Africa by 2000 (p. 256). At the same time, many young individuals from developed countries also died because of HIV and AIDS. It was so because those people did not obtain adequate education and treatment. However, the situation increased dramatically after starting antiretroviral therapy (ART). As a result, life expectancy increased by 43.3 years for 20-year individuals in high-income countries and by 28.3 years in low/middle-income states (Teeraananchai et al., 2017, p. 256). Even though higher longevity is a positive phenomenon, enhanced treatment has provided HIV-positive patients with both advantages and disadvantages, and they will be described below.
To begin with, one should comment on what OIs are. This term stands for diseases caused by pathogens that benefit from specific conditions. For example, it can refer to a person’s weakened immune system. As a result, many bacteria or viruses attack an organism and lead to health issues. Adequate treatment is sufficient to minimize the impact of OIs on people, and the case with HIV and AIDS proves it. The information below will explain the lower incidence of Pneumocystis pneumonia, candidiasis, tuberculosis, cerebral toxoplasmosis, and invasive non-typhoidal salmonellosis (iNTS) among HIV-positive persons.
According to Buchacz et al. (2016), this disease is one of the leading OIs when it comes to HIV and AIDS. The patients’ weakened immune systems result in the fact that pathogens penetrate their organisms and harm them. However, some scientific studies demonstrate that the use of ART is a useful way to protect individuals from this disease. Thus, Buchacz et al. (2016) show that the application of this treatment method decreased the number of Pneumocystis pneumonia diagnoses from 733 in 2000-2003 to 309 in 2008-2010 (p. 867).
The situation with the given disease is the same as the one described above. Here, HIV and AIDS make immune systems weaker, which exposes people to candidiasis and its bacteria. ART treatment is also useful here because it contributed to half as many diagnoses of this illness following its application. It refers to 257 cases in 2008-2010 against 466 events in 2000-2003 (Buchacz et al., 2016, p. 867).
Tuberculosis is another OI that should be considered in this case. Caused by a compromised immune system, this disease can result in many complications. One of them relates to the fact that it is challenging to find supplements that “can deal with both viral and bacterial infection” (Alejandre et al., 2018, p. 135). However, Alejandre et al. (2018) explain that the application of Glutathione allows HIV-positive persons to alleviate excessive oxidative stress and improves their immunity. As a result, people become less subject to the adverse effect of tuberculosis.
Cerebral toxoplasmosis (CTX) is another example of the fact that ART is an effective way of curing HIV, and the study by Martin-Iguacel et al. (2017) proves it. The researchers have analyzed cases of 6325 HIV-infected individuals to identify whether the use of this treatment has made any difference. Thus, Martin-Iguacel et al. (2017) admit that the pre-combination antiretroviral therapy era (1995-1996) witnessed significantly higher CTX incidence rates compared to 1997-2014.
In South Africa, HIV-positive individuals are subject to many OIs, and invasive non-typhoi
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