Listen Live
97.9 The Box Featured Video
CLOSE

HIV and AIDS are not the same thing…

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks and breaks down the body’s immune system – the “internal defense force” that fights off infections and disease. When the immune system becomes weak, we lose our protection against illness and can develop serious, often life-threatening, infections and cancers.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the name for the condition that people with HIV have if they develop one of the serious infections connected with HIV, or if blood tests show that their immune system has been very badly damaged by the virus.

It usually takes many years before HIV breaks down a person’s immune system and causes AIDS. Most people have few, if any, symptoms for several years after they are infected. But once HIV gets into the body, it can do serious damage to the immune system. People who appear perfectly healthy may have the virus, without knowing it, and pass it on to others.

(Source: AIDShelp.org)