| Moira de Swardt 2006-06-12, 2:20 am |
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"Steve Hayes" <hayesmstw@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> If she had "galloping" Aids in 1998, why did it take her eight
years to die?
HIV is a disease which affects the immune system. Immune systems
are funny things, and incidentally HIV has led to vast developments
in knowledge about them. Just as the immune system in HIV negative
people occasionally lets us down, so, too, does the immune system of
HIV positive people. One of the ways in which this is monitored is
with the CD4 count which is so well known, but there are other
"markers".
What probably happened in 1998, is that Nozipho's immune system
crashed and it became obvious that she had HIV, even AIDS. When
this fact became apparent to her parents and family and friends, and
my theory is that she was either hiding this known fact or that she
herself wouldn't accept it, both stressful situations, they accepted
her and loved her, reducing the stress. She was treated
symptomatically, recovered and by virtue of the reduced stress and
the ability to have a decent diet etc, her CD4 level rose to the
recorded low level of, what was it, 134 or something (still
technically full blown AIDS). This is not an unknown phenomenon.
In the days before ARVs I had a friend who got AIDS, was boarded,
left work and recovered, and went on to live long enough to get onto
a decent ARV regimen and has now been living with HIV for more than
25 years. He was thus already what was originally known as a long
term survivor and is now termed a non-progressor. But at one stage
he was close to death. Stress caused by self-stigma seems to play a
huge role in this pattern which is why I think it may have been
*the*, or *a*, cause of Nozipho's recovery.
However, the immune system cannot fight everything when it is weak,
and sooner or later something came along that killed her. Remember,
she was only 32. At that age people with healthy immune systems
seldom come down with anything other than the odd cold.
--
Moira de Swardt posting from Johannesburg, South Africa
Remove the dot in my address to find me at home.
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