Oral health and AIDS
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is a deadly disease caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus).
It attacks T lymphocytes responsible for the body’s defenses.
It is transmitted from an infected person through blood and sexual contact, then from mother to child and through vertical transmission. At least three months pass from the moment of infection with the virus until the appearance of antibodies, exceptionally a year. The virus can lie dormant in the body for two, three years or even up to ten years before signs of the disease appear.
First signs of the disease:
- Fever and weight loss. In this phase, the number of lymphocytes decreases, making it difficult for the body to fight all infections,
- severe pneumonia,
- retinitis,
- nervous system damage,
- in the final phase meningitis,
- atypical and typical tuberculosis,
- Kaposi’s sarcoma.
The presence of HIV has been proven in blood, semen, vaginal secretions, saliva, tears and breast milk.
How can a person become infected with AIDS?
- Through blood (infected syringe, transfusion of infected blood),
- Sexually (oral intercourse does not exclude infection).
20 percent of children of seropositive pregnant women become infected with AIDS, while the possibility of transmitting the virus through breastfeeding cannot be ruled out.
The virus is not transmitted through saliva, it can only happen exceptionally.
Changes in the mouth in people with AIDS:
- Hairy leukoplakia,
- THRUSH,
- ulceronecrotic gingivitis (spreads despite therapy, causing periodontitis),
- Kaposi’s sarcoma (most often on the hard palate and the space behind the molars).
Note: a person cannot get infected from a mosquito bite, at the cinema, at school, on the tram, or by hugging.
