What is HIV?
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. HIV infects and destroys cells of your immune system, making it hard to fight off other diseases. When HIV has severely weakened your immune system, it can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Because HIV works backward to insert its instructions into your DNA, it is called a retrovirus.
What is AIDS?
AIDS is the final and most serious stage of an HIV infection. People with AIDS have very low counts of certain white blood cells and severely damaged immune systems. They may have additional illnesses that indicate that they have progressed to AIDS.
Without treatment, HIV infections progress to AIDS in about 10 years.
What’s the difference between HIV and AIDS?
The difference between HIV and AIDS is that HIV is a virus that weakens your immune system. AIDS is a condition that can happen as a result of an HIV infection when your immune system is severely weakened.
You can’t get AIDS if you aren’t infected with HIV. Thanks to treatment that slows down the effects of the virus, not everyone with HIV progresses to AIDS. But without treatment, almost all people living with HIV will advance to AIDS.
Transmission
HIV is transmitted through specific body fluids: blood, semen, vaginal fluids, rectal fluids, and breast milk. Common modes include:
- Unprotected sex (vaginal or anal).
- Sharing needles or syringes for drug use.
- Perinatal transmission from a parent to a child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding.
Symptoms & Stages
- Acute HIV Infection: Occurs 2–4 weeks after exposure; many experience flu-like symptoms (fever, rash, sore throat, fatigue).
- Chronic HIV Infection: Also called clinical latency; the virus reproduces at low levels. People may have no symptoms for 10 years or longer but can still transmit the virus.
- AIDS: Diagnosed when the CD4 count drops below 200 cells/mm³ or when specific “AIDS-defining illnesses” (like certain cancers or pneumonia) develop
Prevention & Treatment
- ART (Antiretroviral Therapy): A daily medication regimen that reduces the viral load. If the viral load is undetectable, there is effectively no risk of transmitting HIV through sex (known as U=U, Undetectable = Untransmittable).
- PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis): A daily pill or periodic injection for people at high risk to prevent getting HIV.
- PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis): Emergency medicine taken within 72 hours of a possible exposure to prevent infection.
- Testing: This is the only way to know your status.