HIV is the virus that causes HIV infection.
AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection.
HIV is spread through contact with the blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, or breast milk of a person with HIV.
In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having anal or vaginal sex or sharing drug injection equipment with a person who has HIV.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the use of HIV medicines to treat HIV infection. People on ART take a combination of HIV medicines (called an HIV regimen) every day. ART can’t cure HIV infection, but it can help people with HIV live longer, healthier lives. HIV medicines can also reduce the risk of transmission of HIV.
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus, which is the virus that causes HIV infection. The abbreviation “HIV” can refer to the virus or to HIV infection. AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection. HIV attacks and destroys the infection-fighting CD4 cells of the immune system. The loss of CD4 cells makes it difficult for the body to fight infections and certain cancers. Without treatment, HIV can gradually destroy the immune system and advance to AIDS.
How is HIV spread?
HIV is spread through contact with certain body fluids from a person with HIV.
These body fluids include: Blood, Semen, Pre-seminal fluid, Vaginal fluids, Rectal fluids, Breast milk,
The spread of HIV from person to person is called HIV transmission.
The spread of HIV from a woman with HIV to her child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding is called mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having sex with or sharing drug injection equipment with someone who has HIV.
To reduce your risk of HIV infection, use condoms correctly and consistently during sex, limit your number of sexual partners, and never share drug injection equipment.
Mother-to-child transmission is the most common way that children become infected with HIV. HIV medicines, given to women with HIV during pregnancy and childbirth and to their babies after birth, reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
You can’t get HIV by shaking hands or hugging a person who has HIV.
You also can’t get HIV from contact with objects such as dishes, toilet seats, or doorknobs used by a person with HIV. HIV does not spread through the air or through mosquito, tick, or other insect bites.
Within 2 to 4 weeks after a person becomes infected with HIV, they may have flu-like symptoms, such as fever, chills, or rash. The symptoms may last for a few weeks after they become infected.
After this earliest stage of HIV infection, HIV continues to multiply but at very low levels. More severe symptoms of HIV infection, such as signs of opportunistic infections, generally don’t appear for many years.
(Opportunistic infections are infections and infection-related cancers that occur more frequently or are more severe in people with weakened immune systems than in people with healthy immune systems.)
source: aidsinfo
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