HIV/AIDS (Nursing)

00:01 Hi! Welcome to our video series on HIV.

00:04 Now I might sound a little upbeat for such a serious disease, but I can't help it.

00:10 I am so impressed with how far we have come when HIV first came out.

00:15 It was a death sentence.

00:18 We were so afraid, we didn't know what to do.

00:20 We didn't know how a spread, we didn't know how it worked.

00:22 And now we know relatively much much more about this virus and it's no longer a death sentence with treatment, a patient can live a full life, but first up let's understand how HIV works.

00:38 So what is HIV itself? I love this picture.

00:42 It's like the classic villain picture in some space battle pretty cool-looking there.

00:48 Now for just a minute.

00:49 We're going to talk about what this virus is.

00:52 I understand how it can radically change someone's life, but you have to step back and appreciate what this virus can actually do.

01:01 Do because it attacks the body's immune system say that's our biggest problem.

01:05 If a patient is HIV, that means they have the virus.

01:09 We know that the worst case scenario for a patient is that their immune system is going to be attacked.

01:15 So that's our focus.

01:17 We want to keep that viral load as low as possible.

01:20 The fewest numbers of virus in that patients body is what our goal is because we know the potential to really knock out the immune system what this virus does we want to keep the fewest number possible or they low viral load in your patients? So let's take a look at the HIV virus itself.

01:40 Now, I've given you a graphic drawing here.

01:42 You see the HIV glycoproteins, the HIV RNA, the capsid these are kind of the basic working parts of the virus because we're back to your immune system once a patient is infected with HIV if they don't receive treatment now that's really important.

02:00 Don't miss that point this is hey before we had the effective treatment that we have now.

02:06 or if someone doesn't have access or finances or resources to get treatment, here's what's going to happen.

02:12 Their immune system is going to get weaker and weaker and eventually they're not going to be able to fight off even opportunistic infections.

02:21 Now, normally you and I opportunistic infection comes our immune system takes care of it.

02:27 So a healthy immune system usually isn't that bothered by an opportunistic infection, but it gets that name because it's taking advantage of someone who's weakened their immune system.

02:39 So that's the goal.

02:40 You'll hear me come back to that over and over and over again because that's what HIV does if the patient doesn't receive treatment, their immune system becomes weaker and weaker and weaker.

02:51 So it can't even fight off the simplest of opportunistic infections.

02:55 So let's talk about the difference between HIV and AIDS.

03:00 How do you know does it matter if your patients diagnosed with HIV or Aids? Oh, absolutely it matters.

03:08 Okay so HIV is just the presence of the HIV virus the human immunodeficiency virus in the person's bloodstream.

03:17 That's what HIV positive means.

03:20 AIDS is much more intense.

03:23 Now, I'm talking about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

03:28 That means my immune system used to be functioning well, but I've enquired acquired this deficiency.

03:35 So I brought it on by when I became HIV infected.

03:39 Now this encompasses a set of symptoms and illnesses that have developed because they have advanced HIV infection.

03:47 I've got lots and lots of copies of the virus in their blood stream and it's essentially destroyed the immune system.

03:55 Now, we're going to talk to you about how that happens, but it's important that you understand the difference between HIV and AIDS.

04:02 My quality of life is going to be vastly different.

04:04 If I'm just HIV versus AIDS.

04:07 AIDS is really a significantly advanced case of HIV.

04:13 Now there's also some criteria that we used to really use the diagnosis of AIDS.

04:19 So you have a CD4 T-cell count.

04:21 That's really low now in normal CD4 T-cell count probably be a good idea for you to write this in, but a normal CD4 T-cell count is about about 500 to 1500.

04:33 So when a patient's CD4 T-cell count drops below 200, men that's a sign the immune system is just not going to be able to respond and the way we wanted to.

04:45 So AIDS they've got a CD4 T-cell count one of our white cells that's less than 200 and they have an opportunistic infection.

04:55 Now, we just touched on opportunistic infections.

04:57 So, you know, this is something that my body should be able to fight off.