What are HIV and AIDS?
What is HIV?HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It was identified in the early 1980s and belongs to a group of viruses called retroviruses.
HIV stops the body’s immune system working properly. It does this by getting inside cells (called CD4 or T-cells) in our immune system. HIV destroys or damages these cells, makes copies of itself and then goes on to infect and destroy or damage more cells.
As more cells are destroyed, your immune system gets weaker and can’t fight infections properly. This means you can get illnesses more easily. HIV treatment can stop this process so that the immune system can still do its job properly.
Although HIV cannot be cured, it can be treated. Modern HIV treatment means that many people with HIV are living long, healthy lives.
What is AIDS?
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
If HIV isn't treated, the gradual weakening of the immune system it causes leaves the body vulnerable to illnesses it would normally be able to fight off.
In the UK, if you develop certain AIDS-defining illnesses or opportunistic infections, you are diagnosed as having AIDS – sometimes also called ‘late-stage HIV’. You are more likely to have AIDS-defining illnesses if the amount of T-cells in your blood has become low.
You cannot catch AIDS and there is no such thing as an AIDS test.
AIDS is not considered a disease, but a syndrome – a collection of different signs and symptoms, all caused by the same virus, HIV.
If you've developed an AIDS-defining illness, this doesn't mean you're going to die soon. Thanks to HIV treatment, many people who were diagnosed as having AIDS in the past are now living long and healthy lives.
HIV leads to AIDS
You need to have been infected with HIV to develop AIDS.
A small number of people deny that HIV causes AIDS. There have been some claims that AIDS has been created artificially as part of a conspiracy or to make profits for drug companies, for example, but this is not the case.
Without HIV treatment and care, people with HIV will go on to develop AIDS at some point in the future.
This article was last reviewed on: 07/09/11
Date due for next review: 07/09/13
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