01 Read the following passage and complete the following exercises.

Stages and Symptoms of HIV infection

The symptoms of HIV vary, depending on the individual and what stage of the disease you are in: the early stage, the clinical latency stage, or AIDS (the late stage of HIV infection). Below are the symptoms that some individuals may experience in these three stages. Not all individuals will experience these symptoms.

Early Stage of HIV

Some people infected with HIV are asymptomatic at first. Most people experience symptoms in the first month or two after becoming infected. That’s because your immune system is reacting to the virus as it rapidly reproduces.

This early stage is called acute stage. Symptoms are similar to those of the flu and may last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. About 40% to 90% of people have flu-like symptoms within 2-4 weeks after HIV infection. Other people do not feel sick at all during this stage, which is also known as acute HIV infection. Early infection is defined as HIV infection in the past six months (recent) and includes acute (very recent) infections. Flu-like symptoms can include:

1. Fever

2. Chills

3. Rash

4. Night sweats                     

5. Muscle aches              

6. Sore throat

7. Fatigue

8. Swollen lymph nodes

9. Mouth ulcers

During the first few months of infection, an HIV test may provide a false-negative result. This is because it takes time for the immune system to build up enough antibodies to be detected in a blood test. But the virus is active and highly contagious during this time.

    You should not assume you have HIV just because you have any of these symptoms. Each of these symptoms can be caused by other illnesses. And some people who have HIV do not show any symptoms at all for 10 years or more.

After you get tested, it’s important to find out the result of your test. If you’re HIV-positive, you should see a doctor and start HIV treatment as soon as possible.  You are at high risk of transmitting HIV to others during the early stage of HIV infection, even if you have no symptoms. For this reason, it is very important to take steps to reduce your risk of transmisson. If you’re HIV-negative, explore HIV-prevention options, like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), that can help you stay negative.

Clinical Latency Stage

After the early stage of HIV infection, the disease moves into a stage called the clinical latency stage (also called “chronic HIV infection”). During this stage, HIV is still active but reproduces at very low levels. People with chronic HIV infection may not have any HIV-related symptoms, or only mild ones.

For people who aren’t taking medicine to treat HIV (called antiretroviral therapy or ART), this period can last a decade or longer, but some may progress through this phase faster. People who are taking medicine to treat HIV, and who take their medications right way, every day, may be in this stage for several decades because treatment helps keep the virus in check. 

It’s important to remember that people can still transmit HIV to others during this phase even if they have no symptoms, although people who are on ART and stay virally suppressed (having a very low level of virus in their blood) are much less likely to transmit HIV than those who are not virally suppressed.

Progression to AIDS

If you have HIV and you are not on ART, eventually the virus will weaken your body’s immune system and you will progress to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), the late stage of HIV infection.

Symptoms can include:

1. Rapid weight loss

2. Recurring fever or profuse night sweats

3. Extreme and unexplained tiredness

4. Prolonged swelling of the lymph glands in the armpits, groin, or neck

5. Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week

6. Sores of the mouth, anus, or genitals

7. Pneumonia

8. Red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids

9. Memory loss, depression, and other neurologic disorders

Each of these symptoms can also be related to other illnesses. Many of the severe symptoms and illnesses of HIV disease come from the opportunistic infections that occur because your body’s immune system has been damaged.

(Source: https: //www. hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/about-hiv-and-aids/symptoms-of-hiv )

02 Read the passage and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F). Write T for true and F for false.

Notes to the Text:

Issues with HIV/AIDS

Social issues

HIV/AIDS profoundly affects most aspects of people's lives. Social, economic and cultural issues relating to human rights, ethics and law are broached, with discrimination, intolerance and prejudice being commonly experienced by HIV/AIDS sufferers. 

Spread of HIV is linked to certain patterns of human behavior. Hence, it has both biological and socio-cultural determinants. Any attempt to control its spread must take into account the complex social, cultural, economic and environmental factors in which the disease is embedded. In many developing countries nowadays, rapid urbanization coupled with poor housing facilities in city areas leads to migrant labors staying away from families. Illiteracy and poor awareness exposes local residents countries to high risk behavior. Occupational groups such as truck drivers, drug users and commercial sex workers are especially vulnerable. 

The global burden of HIV infection in the years to come will be borne overwhelmingly by people in these countries where poverty affects more women than it does men, further increases their vulnerability to infection. Additionally, the economic subordination of women is perpetuated by unemployment and low salaries, resulting in sex work for survival. Increasingly, inequalities of gender, race and wealth will dictate the course of the pandemic, with infection rates increasing among the vulnerable groups. Social and economic dependence will be the major determinants of the future course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

Ethical issues

Many of the ethical issues that confront us in the context of AIDS are not new. However, the AIDS pandemic has given a sharp focus to issues such as confidentiality, discrimination, access to health care, prenatal testing/abortion and the conduct of clinical/vaccine trials.

The ethical issues relating to confidentiality and partner notification within the context of HIV infection are complex. The right of the individual to confidentiality can be in conflict with the right of the partner to be protected from the risk of infection. Confidentiality is essential to prevent discrimination. In addition, the seriousness of the threat to the health of unsuspecting third parties resulted in the debate on informing people at risk, also known as “partner notification”. The National AIDS Control Guidelines for HIV counselling encourages motivation of the HIV positive person to disclose his/her status to the sex partner.

Ideally, the disclosure of HIV status of the person should not in any way affect his rights to employment, position at workplace, right to medical care and other fundamental rights. Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems faced by HIV positive person is stigma. People, even doctors, are sometimes afraid of dealing with HIV positive persons leading to discrimination in medical care. This stigma can prevent people from being tested. It can result in individuals unknowingly transmitting HIV.

HIV positive women should have complete choice to make decisions about pregnancy and childbirth. There should be no forcible abortion or even sterilization. Proper counselling should be given to pregnant women to enable her to decide whether to continue or terminated the pregnancy. 

Psychological issues

People with HIV often report experiencing feelings of isolation, depression, loss of sleep and anxiety on diagnosis. Prejudice, exclusion, stigmatization are the three conditions that are still sadly dominant both from an individual and social point of view, that is where the community, family, friends and the context of membership accepts the condition of the patient with AIDS, it could be the patient to perceive and push himself to the point of isolation. 

From a collective point of view, unfortunately, poor information is still a problem that leads people to believe that there is a possibility of infection simply being near a person infected with HIV.

There should be more emphasis on information and communication so as to prevent low levels of attention, while it is important to create a welcoming social network and cooperation that will ensure that those who are infected with HIV are not in situations of isolation, hardship and distress.

03 Lexical Chunks and Writing

04 Put the following into Chinese or vice versa.