What is AIDS?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. An HIV-positive person receives an AIDS diagnosis after developing one of the CDC-defined AIDS indicator illnesses. An HIV-positive person can also receive an AIDS diagnosis on the basis of certain blood tests (CD4 counts) and may not have experienced any serious illnesses. A positive HIV test does not mean that a person has AIDS. A diagnosis of AIDS is made by a physician according to the CDC AIDS Case Definition.

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.

Hundreds of U.S. teens become infected with HIV each year. HIV can be transmitted from an infected person to another person through blood, semen (also known as "cum," the fluid released from the penis when a male ejaculates), vaginal fluids, and breast milk.

AIDS severely weakens the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. That is, people diagnosed with AIDS may have opportunistic infections, which are caused by microbes such as viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick. The immune system of a person with AIDS is threatened to the point that medical intervention may be necessary to prevent or treat serious illness.

AIDS makes it possible for some people to feel justified in hating those who have been placed in "high-risk groups". Violence against the homeless, prostitutes, people who use drugs and gay men has somehow become acceptable - because they are portrayed as "spreaders of disease" by the media, clergy and politicians. Africa, long blamed for AIDS, now too is a target of scorn, pity and horrendous experiments.

A damaged immune system is not only more vulnerable to HIV, but also to the attacks of other infections. It won't always have the strength to fight off things that wouldn't have bothered it before. As time goes by, a person who has been infected with HIV is likely to become ill more and more often until, usually several years after infection, they become ill with one of a number of particularly severe illnesses. It is at this point in the stages of HIV infection that they are said to have AIDS - when they first become seriously ill, or when the number of immune system cells left in their body drops below a particular point. Different countries have slightly different ways of defining the point at which a person is said to have AIDS rather than HIV.

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Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is currently no vaccine or cure. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS epidemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus.