Institute for Continuing Education

HIV/AIDS: Respiratory Care Implications

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Describe the structural components and genomic organization of human immunodeficiency virus, including the function of major viral proteins and their roles in the replication cycle.
• Explain the seven-stage HIV replication cycle and identify the specific points at which each class of antiretroviral medication exerts its therapeutic effect.
• Analyze the immunological mechanisms by which HIV infection leads to CD4+ T-lymphocyte depletion, chronic immune activation, and progressive immunodeficiency.
• Evaluate current global and domestic epidemiological trends in HIV infection, including regional variations, demographic patterns, transmission dynamics, and disparities affecting key populations.
• Differentiate among the clinical stages of HIV disease using current CDC classification criteria and correlate CD4+ T-cell thresholds with specific opportunistic infection risks.
• Assess, prioritize, and formulate evidence-based respiratory care plans for patients presenting with HIV-associated pulmonary conditions, including Pneumocystis pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis, and non-infectious complications.
• Apply current antiretroviral therapy principles to clinical practice, including understanding preferred regimens, the significance of viral suppression, treatment as prevention, and implications for respiratory care.
• Implement appropriate infection control measures in respiratory care settings, including standard precautions, transmission-based precautions, and equipment reprocessing protocols specific to HIV-positive patients with concurrent respiratory infections.
• Execute proper protocols following occupational exposure to HIV, including immediate wound management, risk assessment, post-exposure prophylaxis initiation, and follow-up procedures.
• Integrate principles of patient-centered care, cultural competence, confidentiality, and professional ethics into respiratory care practice when caring for individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Course Information

April 4, 1981 "...Any unusual outbreak of a disease is, in medical jargon, an epidemic. With five cases of Pneumocystis diagnosed in five gay men over the past few months in just one city (Los Angeles), the phenomena Gottleib and Shandea were studying fit the necessary criteria for an epidemic. One man was already dead. Gottleib had the queasy feeling that there was something bigger, something catastrophic lurking behind this. Five cases of an uncommon illness in just a few months meant that the disease was no longer uncommon among gay men, Gottleib thought, and chances were that it was going to get a lot more uncommon in the months to come." (from Randy Shilts¹ And The Band Played On) On Friday, June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published what would be the first report on the epidemic we now call AIDS, based on the Los Angeles cases of Pneumocystis that Drs. Michael Gottleib and Joel Weisman had seen in the previous months. The disease was then called "GRID" (Gay Related Immune Disease) and the cause was unknown. There were five known cases in the United States on that June 5th, 1981. What we were to learn about this disease, now called AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and about the causative virus HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), were to create an alarming picture. We couldn¹t know at that time that the virus had already been around for a number of years infecting in a silent and deadly manner and establishing the base for a worldwide epidemic.