Basic things about AIDS and HIV

In 1985, scientists discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV is a virus that is transmitted from person to person through the exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, breast milk and vaginal secretions. Sexual contact is the most common way to spread HIV, but it can also be transmitted by sharing needles when injecting drugs, or during childbirth and breastfeeding. As HIV reproduces, it damages the body's immune system and the body becomes susceptible to illness and infection. There is no known cure for HIV infection nowadays.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is a condition that describes an advanced state of HIV infection. With AIDS, the virus has progressed, causing significant loss of white blood cells or any of the cancers or infections that result from immune system damage.

Once inside the body the virus attacks specialized immune system cells known as CD4 cells. The virus attaches to these cells and infects them by injecting HIV nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) into the cell. New HIV virus then infects other CD4 cells as the cycle repeats itself.

Is HIV and AIDS the same thing? HIV is the virus, which damages the body's immune system. While AIDS defining infections means a person is diagnosed with AIDS. A person can be infected for years without having AIDS. Having HIV infection does not mean you have AIDS. Simply put, HIV and AIDS are not the same thing, but they are related to one another.

Before HIV infection became widespread in the human population, AIDS defining infections were rare, and almost exclusively in individuals with immune suppression, such as chemotherapy and certain types of cancers. AIDS was first recognized in the early 1980s in healthy homosexual men. Adding to the oddity, these men had no recognized cause for immune suppression. An infectious cause of AIDS was suggested by geographic clustering of cases, links among cases by sexual contact, mother-to-infant Later, isolation of HIV from patients with AIDS strongly suggested that this virus was the cause of AIDS.

Medications can successfully treat many of the symptoms of early symptomatic HIV infection. Antiretroviral therapy slows the growth of the HIV virus in the body. It works very well in reducing the number of HIV particles in the bloodstream. Although people have suppressed levels of HIV, they can still spread the virus to others through sex or sharing needles. Antiretroviral therapy is not a cure for HIV, but the treatment slows disease progression and may strengthen the immune system.

People should never forget that HIV/AIDS is more than a physical ailment; it affects the whole person, emotional and physical. Often our treatments focus on the physical only but the emotional needs addressed as well.