Deadly AIDS! How long can people with AIDS survive?

I believe that many people are familiar with AIDS, because this disease is transmitted through sexual intercourse, and once it enters the onset stage, the patient may face the risk of death. For AIDS patients, how long can they survive?

Phase 1

Experts say that the process from a healthy person being infected with HIV to death is generally divided into three stages. The first stage is called the acute HIV infection period. After infection, a small number of infected people will develop influenza-like symptoms, such as fever, pharyngitis, rash, swollen lymph nodes, etc. These symptoms will disappear naturally within 2-3 weeks.

Phase 2

Then, the infected person enters the second stage, which is called the asymptomatic period, accounting for about 80% of the entire process from infection to death. At this time, the patient is called an HIV carrier. On the surface, most infected people are healthy and no different from normal people, but their immune system is fighting the virus invisibly. HIV destroys a large number of immune cells every day, and the bone marrow compensates by accelerating the generation of new cells. However, the replenishment rate of new cells can never keep up with the rate of cell loss. In a normal human body, there are about 800 to 1000 immune cells per cubic millimeter of blood, while in an infected person, the number of immune cells per cubic millimeter of blood gradually decreases at a rate of 50-70 per year. When the number of immune cells is reduced to only about 200 per cubic millimeter of blood, the rate of decline will accelerate. The duration of the asymptomatic period of an infected person can be long or short, ranging from 2 years to 20 years. The length of the period is closely related to the route of infection. Generally, the duration of infection through menstrual blood (mainly illegal blood collection and shared syringes) is 4-5 years, and the duration of infection through sexual intercourse is generally 11-13 years. If an infected person can maintain a symptom-free period of 13 years, he or she can be called a long-term survivor.

Phase 3

When the immune cells in the infected person's body can no longer fight HIV, it marks the entry into the final stage of HIV infection, called the symptomatic stage. At this time, the infected person is called an AIDS patient. They are very susceptible to other diseases. Some common infectious diseases that usually do not pose a threat to human life, such as pneumonia, will be out of control once the AIDS body enters. People usually die within 6 to 24 months.