What Being HIV Positive Means
There is a disease that is ravaging our planet at the moment. There is no cure for this condition and it spreads with ease. This condition is called HIV/AIDS. Let us take a look at what being HIV positive means.
Your health
The virus attacks your immune system. It specifically targets the CD4 T cells. This severely weakens your immune system over time. At first you will not notice any effects of being HIV positive. As time progresses and the virus has time to destroy and infect more and more of your CD4 T cells the more it will become apparent that you are infected. This destruction of your immune system will allow other virus and bacteria to invade your system, further weakening your immune system. You will eventually succumb to one or another illness that a person with a fully functioning immune system would have been able to fight off. The most common culprits are pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Your social life
The virus spreads so quickly because people do not realise that they are infected or do not care about the health of other people and have intercourse with numerous partners. If you are aware that you are HIV positive you should take extra precautions if you insist on partaking in this kind of behaviour. Once your condition progresses you will realise how debilitating it is and you will most likely not want to give the virus to other people. This may cause a change in your social life. You may become less promiscuous or else you will take more care about who you sleep with and what precautions you take if you do sleep with someone. Or at least it should if you are a responsible person.
Your work life
As the virus takes its toll on your system you may find that you are not able to work as much as you were able to. Most companies do understand and will allow you to retire or resign with full benefits. This will decrease your income as your medical expenses increase which can cause a lot of strain.
Your insurance
It is now possible to get life insurance if you are HIV positive. You do have to show that you are taking your medication and making every attempt to keep the virus under control though.
If you are HIV positive your life is going to change dramatically over the course of the disease. Your immune system is going to become compromised and you are going to start to get ill more often. A responsible person would stop having intercourse with any person who is not HIV positive so as to not spread the virus any further. It is also advisable to make sure that you have life insurance in place for when the inevitable happens and your family is saddled with all the expenses that could be left from your medical treatments and other debts such as your home loan or car financing and credit cards. Being HIV positive means a lot of changes.
9