84 Indiana HIV Cases Confirmed; 8 Symptoms You Should Know

Health experts in Indianapolis are concerned of increasing number of HIV cases in the state. Officials report 84 confirmed and five preliminary positive cases of HIV in south-eastern Indiana, reports FOX 59.

The Indiana State Department of Health has set up a one-stop-shop in Austin at the Austin Community Outreach Center, 2277 W. Frontage Road, to facilitate people obtain birth certificates, state-issued ID cards and assistance for HIP 2.0 insurance. According to FOX 59, the outreach center also provides services like HIV testing, HIV substance abuse referrals, HIV care coordination and vaccination for Tetanus and Hepatitis A and B.

Need for early intervention

The state has opened the one-stop-shop to enable early intervention of HIV infection and thereby prevent the progression of HIV to AIDS, as much as possible. According to Medical News Today, researchers from the University College London (UCL) emphasize the importance and benefits of early HIV treatment, based on their study findings -- a "hybrid spreading" pattern of HIV.

HIV has two routes of spreading inside the body; the bloodstream and directly between cells, report the researchers. The virus infects CD4+ T cells, the immune cells in the body and destroys them. As a result, the number of T cells in the body reduces drastically, making the individual vulnerable to infections. This condition is referred as the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Unlike the World Health Organization's recommendation, the researchers suggest that treatment for HIV should start sooner before T-cells levels in the blood are dropped.

Benny Chain, the co-senior author of the study explains, "The number of HIV cells in the bloodstream is always relatively low, and our model shows that HIV spread through the bloodstream alone would not be enough to cause AIDS," quotes Medical News Today.

"It is likely that when HIV gains a foothold somewhere with a high T cell population, such as the gut, it uses a cell-to-cell transfer mechanism to efficiently spread directly between them," adds Chain.

Symptoms of HIV

In order to seek medical attention early in HIV infection, one should know the symptoms of the disease. Here are 8 symptoms of HIV one should know.

Primary HIV Infection symptoms:

1. Fever, sore throat, muscle aches, chills, headache, rash, mouth or genital ulcers, swollen lymph glands- mainly on the neck, joint pain, night sweats and diarrhea, reports Mayo Clinic.

Early symptomatic HIV infection include:

2. Fever                                                                  

3. Swollen lymph nodes - often one of the first signs of HIV infection

4. Fatigue

5. Diarrhea

6. Cough and shortness of breath

7. Weight loss

The symptoms that appear when the disease progress to AIDS are:

8. Skin rashes or bumps, shortness of breath, soaking night sweats persistent white spots or unusual lesions on tongue or in mouth, headaches, blurred and distorted vision, cough, shaking chills or fever higher than 100 f (38 c) for several weeks, chronic diarrhea, persistent and unexplained fatigue and weight loss.