HIV: Critical Review of Literature on Treatment, Transmission Modes, and Social Impact

Running head: HIV
HIV
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
HIV
HIV is one of the most dreadful disorders that have affected huge number of individuals
all over the world and it had resulted in huge number of deaths in the nation of Australia. In the
year 2017, it was estimated that about 27545 people are living with HIV in Australia. Of these
27545 number of people, about 89% of the individuals wee diagnosed with the disorders by the
end of 2017 (Coyle et al., 2016). Present day researches also show that about 95% of them are
accessing care. About 875 of the individuals who are accessing the care, about 875 are receiving
HIV treatments. It was also found that those people who are on the treatment, 95% of them had
an undetectable viral load. Therefore, it shows the importance of healthcare professionals to be
more aware about the disorder and take necessary interventions for prevention of the disorders
among the present day population (Mpango et al., 2018). They also have the duty to ensure
effective care to the people who are already affected with the disorder in proper ways so that
they can lead proper quality life. The assignment would be mainly based on the critical reviews
of the literature of the different aspects of the HIV infection. It would also show the different
interventions that the healthcare professionals need to undertake so that they can provide
evidence based care to the patients who are effected with the disease.
In order to find out articles that align with the different aspects of treatment for the
patients infected by HIV, authentic databases are needed to be researched. In this assignment,
articles will be collected from CINAHL, COCHRANE, MEDLINE as well as PUBMED. The
search terms which were utilized are “HIV and treatments”, “ HIV and its transmission modes”,
“HIV and social impact”, HIV and combination therapies, “HIV drugs”, “HIV and nursing
interventions” and many others. Boolean operators were used for combining the search terms and
these included “AND”, “NOR” and “OR”.

2
HIV
McKinney & Marconi (2016) had discussed about the mode of infection of the HIV in
the human beings. HIV is a virus that attacks cells of the immune systems that are actually the
natural defenses against the different illness. The virus destroys a specific type of white blood
cells in the immune system called the helper T cells and makes copies of itself inside these cells.
T helper cells are also called the CD4 cells. As HIV is seen to destroy more than CD4 cells and
makes more copies of itself, it is seen to gradually weaken the immune system of the person.
This means that the person who is having HIV and is not taking any form of antiretroviral
treatment would find it harder to fight off any other infection and disorders. Raj et al. (2016) had
conducted a research on the progression rate of the HIV when left untreated in the individuals.
They have found that if HIV is left untreated, it might take for about 10 to 15 years for the
immune system to be so severely damaged that it can no longer defend itself at all. However, the
authors have been also quoted stating that the rate at which HIV might progress may vary among
different individuals depending on their general health, age as well as background.
It is important to understand the various ways by which HIV is spread from person to
person. Woods et al. (2016) had stated that the two most common ways by which HIV is
transmitted are through improper sexual behavior and incorrect use of needle and syringes. The
researchers have stated that only certain body fluids like that of the blood, semen (cum), pre-
seminal fluid (pre-cum), vaginal fluids, rectal fluids as well as breast milk from an already
infected HIV individual can result in transmission of the HIV. However, the researchers have
also mentioned of important conditions that ensure infection of the normal healthy human being
by the aforementioned fluid transmission (Vos et al., 2015). These fluids need to meet the
mucous membrane as well as the damaged tissues of need to be directly injected in the blood

3
HIV
stream with the help of a needle of a syringe for the occurrence of transmission. The mucous
membranes are present inside the penis, vagina as well as the mouth and rectum,.
Authors like Fogarty et al. (2016) had discussed in details about the life cycle of the HIV
virus in details helping readers to understand the steps that the virus goes through before
showing reactions and outcomes on the health of the patients. After entering into the blood
stream, free virus are seen to circulate in the bloodstream. HIV is seen to attach to the cells of the
human beings and are seen to empty their contents in the cell. The reverse transcriptase enzyme
for building up of the HIV DNA mainly uses the genetic material of the HIV virus (which is
actually the RNA). This DNA is then inserted into the chromosome of the cell by the HIV
integrase enzyme. This helps in establishing the HIV infection in the cells. Researchers have
opined that this step mainly contribute to establishment of the HIV infection in the cells. When
the infected cell goes through reproduction, it helps in the activation of the HIV DNA cells. This
helps in making the raw materials for the new HIV viruses. This then is followed by formation of
the packets for the development of new virus. The immature viruses are then seen to push out of
the infected cells of the human being into the procedures that are named as budding. Then the
immature virus is seen to break free of the infected cells (Morin et al., 2016). The new virus then
goes through maturation stages where the raw materials are cut by the protease enzymes. These
get assembled into a functioning virus ready to affect new cells. This paper is found to be
important for the present day researchers as well as for the healthcare professionals.
Understanding the lifecycle of the virus will help them to develop knowledge about how the
virus gradually overcomes the barriers of the immune system and weakness the immune system.
This would also help researchers to develop various educations that would act in the vulnerable