What is the difference between a person infected with HIV and one who has AIDS?
A person living with HIV (medically known as an HIV positive person) is one who has virus in his/her body. Such a person, remains infected and is presumed infective for the rest of his/her life. However, s/he will appear to be perfectly normal and healthy and asymptomatic for many years. An asymptomatic HIV infected person does not have Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). But when an HIV positive person’s T lymphocytes (which are responsible for the immunity) count falls to 200 or less, s/he starts developing symptoms for eg. cough, fever, diarrhoea, skin lesions, etc. They are due to opportunistic infections (so called because they develop when the body’s immunity becomes deficient) like TB, Thrush, Pneumonia, Cryptococcal meningitis, etc. All persons with AIDS are infected with HIV, but not all persons with HIV infection have AIDS. AIDS is only the end stage of this infection.
An HIV infected person is one who has the Human Immune Deficiency Virus in his / her body. Such a person remains infected and is infective for the rest of his / her life. He / she will appear to be perfectly normal and healthy and will be a symptomatic. A symptomatic HIV infected person does not have AIDS. When an HIV positive person’s T-lymphocyte count falls to 200 or less he / she starts developing AIDS. All persons with AIDS are infected with HIV but all persons with HIV infection do not have AIDS. AIDS is the end stage of this infection.
