What is the simple definition of AIDS?
What is the simple definition of AIDS?
Overview. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body’s ability to fight infection and disease.
What do the letters in AIDS mean?
The letters in AIDS stand for: acquired. immunodeficiency (say: im-yuh-noh-di-FISH-un-see) syndrome.
How are AIDS caused?
HIV infection is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. You can get HIV from contact with infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluids. Most people get the virus by having unprotected sex with someone who has HIV. Another common way of getting it is by sharing drug needles with someone who is infected with HIV.
What is the life expectancy of AIDS?
In 1996, the total life expectancy for a 20-year-old person with HIV was 39 years. In 2011, the total life expectancy bumped up to about 70 years. The survival rate for HIV-positive people has also dramatically improved since the first days of the HIV epidemic.
What kills AIDS virus?
Researchers: Bee Venom Can Kill the HIV Virus. New research shows that nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom are capable of destroying HIV cells while leaving others intact. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis (WU) say they’ve found a way to effectively destroy the HIV virus using a toxin found in bee venom.
What happens when you have AIDS?
However, if you are infected with HIV and don’t get treatment, HIV will eventually overwhelm your immune system. This will lead to your being diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). People with AIDS have severely compromised (weakened) immune systems which can lead to infections, malignancies and ultimately death.
What happens to the body in the last stage of AIDS?
In the final stage of Aids, the symptoms of HIV disease become more acute, patients become infected by relatively rare and unusual organisms that do not respond to antibiotics, the immune system deteriorates, and more persistent and untreatable opportunistic conditions and cancers begin to manifest.
