What Is The Difference Between HIV And AIDS?
HIV and AIDS are simply two different stages of the same disease. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks the immune system and damages it. A person is said to be HIV positive if that person is infected with the virus HIV. The deterioration and destruction of the immune system eventually leads to AIDS, and this is when people become susceptible to other illnesses. In short, HIV is the virus, and AIDS is the disease that it causes. Any person who has HIV, whether the person is sick with AIDS or not, can pass the virus on to other people.
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. H – Human: because this virus can only infect human beings. I – Immuno-deficiency: because the effect of the virus is to create a deficiency, or a failure to work properly, within the body’s immune system. V – Virus: because this organism is a virus, which means one of its characteristics is that it is incapable of reproducing by itself. It reproduces by taking over the machinery of the human cell.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus which attacks the T-cells in the immune system. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a syndrome which appears in advanced stages of HIV infection. The difference between HIV and AIDS is that HIV is a virus, while AIDS is a medical condition. HIV is sometimes referred to as the causative agent, since it is not possible to develop AIDS without an HIV infection, although it is possible to be infected with HIV without developing AIDS. HIV can be transmitted sexually or through blood products. Some common risk factors for HIV infection include: unprotected sex, needle sharing, and exposure to contaminated blood products. Once someone is infected with HIV, the virus begins to replicate in the blood, slowly hijacking the T-cells so that they cannot function normally. If the infection is allowed to progress, eventually it will develop into AIDS. People with HIV and AIDS are at increased risk of opportunistic infections, because their i
