HIV stands for the 'Human Immuno-deficiency
Virus'. A virus is really nothing but a set of instructions for
making new viruses, wrapped up in some fat, protein and sugar.
Without living cells, a virus can't do anything – it's like a brain
with no body. In order to make more viruses a virus has to infect a
cell.
Someone who is infected with HIV is
said to be 'HIV+' or 'HIV positive'. The immune system is a group of
cells & organs which protect your body by fighting microorganisms &
germs (like viruses and bacteria’s etc.) that spread infections. In
humans, the body's immune system usually finds and kills viruses
fairly quickly.
People get infected with HIV, by
coming in direct contact with those people who already have it. This
is an ongoing process which seems to continues endlessly and HIV is
spread from one person to another.
HIV - Human Immuno-deficiency Virus
HIV is a virus. A virus is a
diminutive living thing that reproduces and spreads. A fact about
virus is that, they cannot survive on their own and need another
living body to live within. When a virus finds a home within a
living organism, it replicates (begins to duplicate itself) within
this organism's cells. Once inside the cell, HIV starts producing
millions of little viruses, which eventually kill the cell and then
go out to infect other cells. All of the drugs marketed to treat HIV
work by interfering with this process.
A virus damages the cells it replicates in and this is one of the
reasons, which makes the infected creature ill. HIV mostly infects
T-cells, also known as CD4+ cells, or T-helper cells. These cells
are white blood corpuscles that turn the immune system on to fight
disease. A damaged immune system is not only vulnerable to the HIV
attack that first damaged it, but also to the attacks of other
infections - it won't always have the strength anymore to fight off
things that wouldn't have bothered it before.
With the breakage of immune system, one loses this protection and
can develop many serious, often deadly infections and cancers
referred to as "opportunistic infections (OIs)" since these
infections take advantage of the body's weakened defenses and this
ultimately causes death. AIDS is the condition that lets the OIs
take hold.
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 that they are said to have
AIDS - when they first become seriously ill, or when the number of
immune system cells left in the body drops below a particular point.
Different countries have slightly different ways of defining the
point that a person is said to have AIDS rather than HIV.
