The respiratory system
The respiratory system mainly consists of the lungs! Air enters the lungs from the nose and mouth through the throat and windpipe, as explained by users.rcn.com. Livescience.com says that the main purpose of the respiratory system is to perform gas exchange so that our body could intake oxygen and take away carbon dioxide from our bodies! This happens in our lungs, as the inhaled air travels from the bronchus to the bronchiole and into the alveolus, where blood capillaries are found. As explained in the Circulatory system, diffusion of gaseous exchange occurs in the capillaries as oxygen enters the blood and carbon dioxide is released. The released carbon dioxide along with the other air components are exhaled, and the respiratory system repeats the process!
HIV effects on the respiratory system
The things that HIV could passively do to your respiratory system is deadly. The weakened immune system allows various bacteria to enter your lungs. One of them may be the bacterial pneumonia. Webmd.com, expresses the deadliness of this type of bacteria. First of all, the bacterial pneumonia is known to reproduce in the lungs. Worse, as shown in the picture aside, it releases fluids to the blood capillaries in the alveoli, preventing gaseous exchange. This means that the lungs wouldn't be able to efficiently provide oxygen to the bloodstream, nor release carbon dioxide. The malfunction of lungs could be critical, and may even cause death. Symptoms of bacterial pneumonia varies from coughing to chest pain.
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This is a video briefly explaining Pneumonia. In the video, they make it sound like it is not a problematic issue to strongly worry about, but it can be serious for an HIV infected person.
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