A Disease Similar to AIDS Was Found, but Not Contagious

Scientists have identified a mysterious disease that has symptoms similar to AIDS even though the person is not infected with HIV. The disease was found in some people in Asia and United States.

Symptoms of the disease, among other things, damage the immune system so the body is unable to fight off viruses and bacteria as well as healthy people. The trigger is unknown, but the disease is thought not to be contagious.

According to Dr. Sarah Browne, a scientist from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the mysterious disease is another form of immune disorder that is not revealed, but it is not spread by viruses like AIDS.

Browne did research in Thailand and Taiwan, where the disease was found since 2004.

Maki said that there was still a possibility that certain infections triggered this mysterious disease although the disease itself was not contagious among people.

The disease generally affects adults aged about 50 years, but it in not revealed in the family. According to Browne, most of the patients died because of incredible infections.

One patient, Kim Nguyen (62), the Vietnamese who have lived in the U.S. since 1975, was diagnosed with this mysterious disease. He went to the doctor due to a fever that was never healed. Since 2009, he also had many strange symptoms. In 1995 and 2009, he was reported to have visited Vietnam.

At first, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Later, he was known to suffer from symptoms of immune system disorder and was treated in hospital for a year Hamir.

AIDS is a specific  disease and causes the immune system of people infected with the HIV virus disrupted. The HIV virus will destroy T cells, the major forces in the human immune system to fight pathogens.

Meanwhile, this mysterious disease does not interfere the cells, but causes other damage. In a study conducted by Browne to 200 people in Taiwan and Thailand, in most of the patients with this mysterious disease, their bodies make autoantibodies that hold interferon gamma , a chemical signal that helps the body get rid of the infection.

Disruption of the chemical signals will make a person, such as AIDS patient, more susceptible to fungal , viral, and other parasitic infections that are similar to tuberculosis and cause lung damage.

Scientists now call this mysterious disease as immune disorder in adults as it only emerges in old age.

Treatment with antibiotics is not always effective, so doctors usually perform a wide variety of treatments, including cancer drugs to suppress the production of antibody.

Because the disease is experienced by most of Asian people or Asian descents, the experts said that genetic factors might play a role in triggering the disease.