AIDS stands for Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome:
·
Acquired means you can
get infected with it.
·
Immune Deficiency means a weakness in the
body’s system that fights diseases.
·
Syndrome means a group
of health problems that make up a disease.
AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency
Virus. If you get infected with HIV, your body will try to fight the
infection. It will make “antibodies,” special molecules to fight HIV.
A blood test for HIV looks for these antibodies. If you have
them in your blood, it means that you have HIV infection. People who have the
HIV antibodies are called “HIV-Positive.” Fact Sheet 102 has more information
on HIV testing.
Being HIV-positive, or having HIV disease, is not the same
as having AIDS. Many people are HIV-positive but don’t get sick for many years.
As HIV disease continues, it slowly wears down the immune system. Viruses,
parasites, fungi, and bacteria that usually don’t cause any problems can make
you very sick if your immune system is damaged. These are called “opportunistic
infections.” See Fact Sheet 500 for an overview of opportunistic infections.
HOW DO YOU GET AIDS?
You don’t actually “get” AIDS. You might get infected with
HIV, and later you might develop AIDS. You can get infected with HIV from
anyone who’s infected, even if they don’t look sick and even if they haven’t
tested HIV-positive yet. The blood, vaginal fluid, semen, and breast milk of
people infected with HIV has enough of the virus in it to infect other people.
Most people get the HIV virus by:
·
having sex
with an infected person
·
sharing a
needle (shooting drugs) with someone who’s infected
·
being born
when their mother is infected, or drinking the breast milk of an infected woman
Getting a transfusion
of infected blood used to be a way people got AIDS, but now the blood supply is
screened very carefully and the risk is extremely low.
There are no documented cases of HIV being transmitted by
tears or saliva, but it is possible to be infected with HIV through oral sex or
in rare cases through deep kissing, especially if you have open sores in your
mouth or bleeding gums. For more information, see the following Fact Sheets:
·
150: Stopping
the Spread of HIV
·
151: Safer Sex
Guidelines
·
152: How Risky
Is It?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
estimates that 1 to 1.2 million US residents are living with HIV infection or
AIDS; about a quarter of them do not know they have it. About 75 percent of the
40,000 new infections each year are in men, and about 25 percent in women. About half of the new infections are in Blacks, even though
they make up only 12 percent of the US
WHAT HAPPENS IF I’M HIV POSITIVE?
You might not know if you get infected by HIV. Within a few
weeks after being infected, some people get fever, headache, sore muscles and
joints, stomach ache, swollen lymph glands, or a skin rash for one or two weeks.
Most people think it’s the flu. Some people have no symptoms. Fact Sheet 103
has more information on the early stage of HIV infection.
The virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks or even
months before your immune system responds. During this time, you won’t test
positive for HIV, but you can infect other people.
When your immune system responds, it starts to make
antibodies. When this happens, you will test positive for HIV. After the first
flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer.
But during this time, HIV is damaging your immune system.
One way to measure the damage to your immune system is to
count your CD4 cells. These cells, also called “T-helper" cells, are an
important part of the immune system. Healthy people have between 500 and 1,500
CD4 cells in a milliliter of blood. Fact Sheet 124 has more information on CD4
cells.
Without treatment,
your CD4 cell count will most likely go down. You might start having signs of
HIV disease like fevers, night sweats, diarrhea, or swollen lymph nodes. If you
have HIV disease, these problems will last more than a few days, and probably
continue for several weeks.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE AIDS?
HIV disease becomes AIDS when your immune system is
seriously damaged. If you have less than 200 CD4 cells or if your CD4
percentage is less than 14%, you have AIDS. See Fact Sheet 124 for more
information on CD4 cells. If you get an opportunistic infection, you have AIDS.
There is an “official” list of opportunistic infections, put out by the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC). The most common ones are:
·
PCP
(Pneumocystis pneumonia), a lung infection; see Fact Sheet 515
·
KS (Kaposi’s
sarcoma), a skin cancer, Fact Sheet 511
·
CMV
(Cytomegalovirus), an infection that usually affects the eyes, Fact Sheet 504
·
Candida, a
fungal infection that can cause thrush (a white film in your mouth) or
infections in your throat or vagina, Fact Sheet 501
AIDS-related symptoms also include serious weight loss,
brain tumors, and other health problems. Without treatment, these opportunistic
infections can kill you. The official (technical) CDC definition of AIDS is
available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00018871.htm
AIDS is different in every infected person. A few people may
die a few months after getting infected, but most live fairly normal lives for
many years, even after they “officially” have AIDS. A few HIV-positive people
stay healthy for many years even without taking antiretroviral medications
(ART).
IS THERE A CURE FOR AIDS?
There is no cure for AIDS. Antiretroviral therapy (ART, see
fact sheet 403) can slow down the HIV virus and slow down the damage to your
immune system. Most people stay healthy as long as they continue ART. There is
no way to “clear” HIV from the body.
Other drugs can prevent or treat opportunistic infections
(OIs). In most cases, these drugs work very well. The newer, stronger ARVs have
also helped reduce the rates of most OIs. A few OIs, however, are still very
difficult to treat. See Fact Sheet 500 for more information on opportunistic
infections.
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