HIV/AIDS and Psychosocial Ostracism: A view from Kashmir

Literally the phrasal acronym HIV/AIDS would prove a leitmotif in this study. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, and not everyone who has HIV advances to this stage. At this stage people are susceptible to opportunistic infections because of their damaged immune system. So a person progressed to too many opportunistic infections means he has AIDS. He also may show very little CD4 count. A person at this stage is bound to go for medical, salubrious, and therapeutic intervention to avoid the extreme results and death sentence. HIV epidemic has a well-documented and well understood progression. Untreated, HIV is almost universally fatal because it eventually damages the immune system—resulting in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV treatment (antiretroviral therapy) helps people at all stages of the disease, and treatment can slow or prevent progression from one stage to the next. As yet no vaccine or drug has been made by the medical sciences that ensure the complete eradication of virus from the body. The available drugs surely can stop the growth of virus, or lessen the multiplication of it. These drugs have been responsible for the longevity of the HIV infected.