HIV AIDS: diseases — симптомы, диагностика и лечение

Pulmonary tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as Koch's bacillus. It is transmitted through the air, which means that anyone can encounter it - in transport, in line, in the office, at a party. This is fundamentally important to understand, because there is still an unfair stereotype around tuberculosis: that only people without home and work suffer from it. In fact, teachers, students, drivers, doctors, entrepreneurs—those who have coincided with contact with the infection and temporarily weakened body defense—get sick. For Central Asia, the topic remains relevant, and the main practical rule is simple: a cough that lasts longer than two to three weeks is not a “lingering cold,” but a reason to take a photo of the lungs and give sputum. Tuberculosis is curable, and if detected in time, it is almost always curable.

Candidiasis is the overgrowth of yeast-like fungi of the genus Candida, which normally live on the skin, mouth, intestines and vagina of most healthy people. This follows the main thing that is important to understand from the very beginning: thrush in most cases is not “caught” somewhere from the outside and is not a sexually transmitted disease. This is an imbalance of one’s own microflora, which is most often triggered by antibiotics, high blood sugar, hormonal changes or decreased immunity. Two practical conclusions follow from this, which run counter to everyday beliefs: in most cases, the partner does not need treatment, and douching not only does not help, but also aggravates the problem. And one more unpleasant fact: approximately half of the women who independently diagnose themselves with thrush actually have another condition - which is why treatment so often “does not help.”

HIV infection today is a chronic disease that is treated as systematically as diabetes or hypertension. Over the past two decades, the main thing has changed: with timely initiation and regularly taken antiretroviral therapy, the life expectancy of a person with HIV is approaching normal, he works, studies, starts a family and gives birth to healthy children. Another fundamental fact that not everyone knows about: a person in whom the virus is not detected in the blood during treatment does not transmit the infection through sexual contact. This principle is formulated briefly - undetectable equals non-transmitting, or N=N. It has been confirmed by large international studies and accepted by the global medical community. Much of what still frightens people relates not to the infection itself, but to outdated ideas about it: HIV is not transmitted through handshakes, hugs, shared utensils, swimming pools, insect bites and household contacts.