AIDS
...ctions. Although you may think that AIDS and HIV are the same thing, they are not. They are different. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, infectious agent that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a disease that leaves a person vulnerable to life-threatening infections. Scientists have identified two types of this virus. HIV-1 is the primary cause of AIDS worldwide. HIV-2 is found mostly in West Africa. HIV belongs to the retrovirus family of viruses. AIDS is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), human viral disease that ravages the immune system, undermining the body’s ability to defend itself from infection and disease. Caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), AIDS leaves an infected person vulnerable to opportunistic infections. There are no common symptoms for individuals diagnosed with AIDS. When immune system damage is more severe, people may experience opportunistic infections (called ‘opportunistic’ because they are caused by organisms which cannot bring disease in people with normal immune systems, but take the "opportunity" to flourish in people with HIV). Most of these more severe infections, diseases and symptoms fall under the Centers for Disease Control's definition of full-blown "AIDS." The median time to receive an AIDS diagnosis among those infected with HIV is 7-10 years. You can get AIDS by having sexual intercourse with a person who is infected with the disease. The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual intercourse, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you kn...