HIV infection weakens your immune system, making you highly susceptible to a large number of bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections. You may also be vulnerable to certain types of cancers. But treatment with anti-retroviral drugs has markedly decreased the number of opportunistic infections and cancers affecting people with HIV. It's now more likely these infections will occur in people who have not had treatment.
Viral infections
- Cytomegalovirus (CMV). This common herpesvirus is transmitted in body fluids such as saliva, blood, urine, semen and breast milk. But a healthy immune system inactivates the virus, and it remains dormant in your body. If your immune system weakens, the virus resurfaces, causing damage to your eyes, digestive tract, lungs or other organs. Most commonly, CMV causes infection and inflammation of your retina (CMV retinitis). If not treated, CMV retinitis can lead to blindness.
- Viral hepatitis. Viral hepatitis is a viral infection of the liver. Signs and symptoms include yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice), fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite and diarrhea. There are several types of viral hepatitis, but the most common are hepatitis A, B and C. Hepatitis B and C can lead to persistent or chronic infection and put you at risk of long-term complications such as cirrhosis or liver cancer. If you are HIV-positive and also have hepatitis, you may be more likely to develop liver toxicity from your medications.
- Herpes simplex virus (HSV). HSV, which usually causes genital herpes, may be transmitted during unprotected anal or vaginal sex. Initial symptoms include pain or irritated skin in the genital area. Later, sores that ooze and bleed erupt on the genitals, buttocks and anus. Although these sores eventually heal, the virus periodically reappears, causing the same symptoms. If you have HIV, your skin infection is likely to be more severe than it would be in people who don't have HIV, and the sores may take longer to heal. Systemic symptoms may also be more severe. Although the herpes virus isn't life-threatening in adults, it may cause brain damage and blindness.
- Human papillomavirus (HPV). This is one of the most common causes of sexually transmitted disease. Some types of this virus cause common warts. Other types cause warts on the genitals. If you're HIV-positive, you're especially susceptible to infection with HPV and more prone to recurrent infections. HPV infection is especially serious because it significantly increases a woman's risk of cervical cancer. Infection with both HPV and HIV increases a woman's risk even further cervical cancer seems to occur more often and more aggressively in women who are HIV-positive. In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine to offer protection from the most dangerous types of HPV. The vaccine is most effective when given to girls before they become sexually active, but it also provides protection for sexually active women age 26 and younger. If you are not a candidate for the vaccine, are HIV-positive or have unprotected sex with more than one partner, you should have a Pap test a test that examines cells taken from the cervix every year to check for cervical cancer, HPV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Anyone who engages in anal sex should be tested for anal cancer because HPV increases the risk of this type of cancer in both men and women.
- Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). PML is an extremely serious brain infection caused by the human polyomavirus JC virus. Signs and symptoms vary and may include speech problems, weakness on one side of the body, loss of vision in one eye, or numbness in one arm or leg. PML usually occurs only when your immune system has been severely damaged.
