Medical-surgical Nursing Demystified

(^146) Medical-Surgical Nursing Demystified

• Night sweats—immune system triggered response.


• Fever—may be due to a concurrent infection related to a low WBC count.


• Malnutrition—due to poor appetite, poor nutrition, nausea and vomiting, and
  most often from a secondary infection; decreased protein synthesis.

INTERPRETING TEST RESULTS

• Less than 200 T-cells per microliter—the CD4 lymphocyte is the most com-
  monly used count; <200 cells/μl signals the process from HIV to AIDS, and
  thus, increases the risk for malignancies and advancing infection.


• Positive HIV antibody titer—95 percent positive 6 weeks after contact. Often
  used with the Western blot to confirm diagnosis.


• Positive Western blot—confirms positive HIV test.

TREATMENT

• High-calorie and high-protein diet to combat wasting and weight loss.


• Administer antibiotics to combat opportunistic infections:
  
  
  • trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole
  
  
  
  


• Administer antiviral medication to suppress HIV replication, causing support
  of the immune system and fewer opportunistic infections.
  
  
  • Nucleoside analogs (have antiviral activity):
    
    
    • didanosine
    
    
    • zidovudine
    
    
    • stavudine
    
    
    • zalcitabine
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Nucleotide analog:
    
    
    • tenofovir
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Protease inhibitors (suppress HIV replication):
    
    
    • fortovase
    
    
    • ritonavir
    
    
    • indinavir
    
    
    • nelfinavir
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (stop reverse transcriptase
    at a different site):