WHAT IS AIDS?

WHAT DOES AIDS MEAN?

HOW DO YOU GET AIDS?
WHAT HAPPENS IF IM HIV POSITIVE?
HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE AIDS?
IS THERE A CURE FOR AIDS?

WHAT DOES AIDS MEAN?
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome:
Acquired means you can get infected with it;
Immune Deficiency means a weakness in the bodys system that fights diseases.
Syndrome means a group of health problems that make up a disease.
AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. If you get infected with HIV,
your body will try to fight the infection. It will make antibodies, special molecules to fight HIV.

A blood test for HIV looks for these antibodies. If you have them in your blood, it means that you have
HIV infection. People who have the HIV antibodies are called HIV-Positive. Fact Sheet 102 has more
information on HIV testing.

Being HIV-positive, or having HIV disease, is not the same as having AIDS. Many people are HIV-positive
but dont get sick for many years. As HIV disease continues, it slowly wears down the immune system.
Viruses, parasites, fungi and bacteria that usually dont cause any problems can make you very sick if
your immune system is damaged. These are called opportunistic infections. See Fact Sheet 500 for an
overview of opportunistic infections.



HOW DO YOU GET AIDS?

You dont actually get AIDS. You might get infected with HIV, and later you might develop AIDS. You
can get infected with HIV from anyone whos infected, even if they dont look sick and even if they
havent tested HIV-positive yet. The blood, vaginal fluid, semen, and breast milk of people infected with
HIV has enough of the virus in it to infect other people. Most people get the HIV virus by:

having sex with an infected person
sharing a needle (shooting drugs) with someone whos infected
being born when their mother is infected, or drinking the breast milk of an infected woman
Getting a transfusion of infected blood used to be a way people got AIDS, but now the blood supply is
screened very carefully and the risk is extremely low.

There are no documented cases of HIV being transmitted by tears or saliva, but it is possible to be
infected with HIV through oral sex or in rare cases through deep kissing, especially if you have open
sores in your mouth or bleeding gums. For more information, see the following Fact Sheets:

150: Stopping the Spread of HIV
151: Safer Sex Guidelines
152: How Risky Is It?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 to 1.2 million U.S. residents are
living with HIV infection or AIDS; about a quarter of them do not know they have it. About 75 percent of
the 40,000 new infections each year are in men, and about 25 percent in women. About half of the new
infections are in Blacks, even though they make up only 12 percent of the US population.

In the mid-1990s, AIDS was a leading cause of death. However, newer treatments have cut the AIDS
death rate significantly. For more information, see the US Government fact sheet at
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/aidsstat.htm.


WHAT HAPPENS IF IM HIV POSITIVE?

You might not know if you get infected by HIV. Some people get fever, headache, sore muscles and
joints, stomach ache, swollen lymph glands, or a skin rash for one or two weeks. Most people think its
the flu. Some people have no symptoms. Fact Sheet 103 has more information on the early stage of HIV
infection.

The virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks or even months before your immune system
responds. During this time, you wont test positive for HIV, but you can infect other people.

When your immune system responds, it starts to make antibodies. When this happens, you will test
positive for HIV.

After the first flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer. But during
this time, HIV is damaging your immune system.

One way to measure the damage to your immune system is to count your CD4 cells you have. These
cells, also called T-helper cells, are an important part of the immune system. Healthy people have
between 500 and 1,500 CD4 cells in a milliliter of blood. Fact Sheet 124 has has more information on
CD4 cells.

Without treatment, your CD4 cell count will most likely go down. You might start having signs of HIV
disease like fevers, night sweats, diarrhea, or swollen lymph nodes. If you have HIV disease, these
problems will last more than a few days, and probably continue for several weeks.





HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE AIDS?

HIV disease becomes AIDS when your immune system is seriously damaged. If you have less than 200
CD4 cells or if your CD4 percentage is less than 14%, you have AIDS. See Fact Sheet 124 for more
information on CD4 cells. If you get an opportunistic infection, you have AIDS. There is an official list of
these opportunistic infections put out by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The most common ones
are:

PCP (Pneumocystis pneumonia), a lung infection;
KS (Kaposis sarcoma), a skin cancer;
CMV (Cytomegalovirus), an infection that usually affects the eyes
Candida, a fungal infection that can cause thrush (a white film in your mouth) or infections in your
throat or vagina
AIDS-related diseases also includes serious weight loss, brain tumors, and other health problems.
Without treatment, these opportunistic infections can kill you.

The official (technical) CDC definition of AIDS is available at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00018871.htm AIDS is different in every infected
person. Some people die a few months after getting infected, while others live fairly normal lives for
many years, even after they officially have AIDS. A few HIV-positive people stay healthy for many years
even without taking antiretroviral medications (ARVs).


IS THERE A CURE FOR AIDS?

There is no cure for AIDS. There are drugs that can slow down the HIV virus, and slow down the damage
to your immune system. There is no way to clear the HIV out of your body.

Other drugs can prevent or treat opportunistic infections (OIs). In most cases, these drugs work very
well. The newer, stronger ARVs have also helped reduce the rates of most OIs. A few OIs, however, are
still very difficult to treat. See Fact Sheet 500 for more information on opportunistic infections.
EARLY STAGE OF HIV: SYMPTOMS
Within 2-4 weeks after HIV infection, many, but not all, people experience flu-like symptoms, often
described as the worst flu ever. This is called acute retroviral syndrome (ARS) or primary HIV
infection, and its the bodys natural response to the HIV infection.
Symptoms can include:
Fever (this is the most common symptom)
Swollen glands
Sore throat
Rash
Fatigue
Muscle and joint aches and pains
Headache
These symptoms can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. However, you should not assume
you have HIV if you have any of these symptoms. Each of these symptoms can be caused by other
illnesses. Conversely, not everyone who is infected with HIV develops ARS. Many people who are
infected with HIV do not have any symptoms at all for 10 years or more.
You cannot rely on symptoms to know whether you have HIV. The only way to know for sure if you are
infected with HIV is to get tested. If you think you have recently been exposed to HIVif you have had
oral, vaginal or anal sex without a condom with a known HIV positive person or a partner whose HIV
status you do not know or shared needles to inject drugsget an HIV test. Traditional HIV tests detect
HIV antibodies. But during this early stage your body is not yet producing these antibodies. A new HIV
test was approved in 2013 that can detect the presence of HIV in your body during this early stage of
infection. So no matter where you get tested, it is very important to let your provider know that you
may have been recently infected with HIV and you would like to be tested for acute HIV. Use the
HIV/AIDS Testing and Services Locator to find a HIV testing site near you or enter your location here:


It is important to remember that with or without symptoms, you are at particularly high risk of
transmitting HIV to your sexual or drug using partners during this time because the levels of HIV in your
blood stream are very high. For this reason, it is very important to take steps to reduce your risk of
transmission.

THE CLINICAL LATENCY STAGE
After the early stage of HIV infection, the disease moves into a stage called the clinical latency stage.
Latency means a period where a virus is living or developing in a person without producing symptoms.
During the clinical latency stage, people who are infected with HIV experience no HIV-related symptoms,
or only mild ones. (This stage is sometimes called asymptomatic HIV infection or chronic HIV
infection.)
During the clinical latency stage, the HIV virus reproduces at very low levels, although it is still active. If
you take antiretroviral therapy (ART), you may live with clinical latency for several decades because
treatment helps keep the virus in check. (Read more about HIV treatment.) For people who are not on
ART, this clinical latency stage lasts an average of 10 years, but some people may progress through this
phase faster.
It is important to remember that people in this symptom-free period are still able to transmit HIV to
others even if they are on ART, although ART greatly reduces the risk of transmission.
Again, the only way to know for sure if you are infected with HIV is to get tested. Tests are available that
can detect the virus at this stage. Use the HIV/AIDS Testing and Services Locator to find a HIV testing site
near you.
PROGRESSION TO AIDS: SYMPTOMS
If you have HIV and you are not taking HIV medication (antiretroviral therapy), eventually the HIV virus
will weaken your bodys immune system. The onset of symptoms signals the transition from the clinical
latency stage to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).
During this late stage of HIV infection, people infected with HIV may have the following symptoms:
Rapid weight loss
Recurring fever or profuse night sweats
Extreme and unexplained tiredness
Prolonged swelling of the lymph glands in the armpits, groin, or neck
Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week
Sores of the mouth, anus, or genitals
Pneumonia
Red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids
Memory loss, depression, and other neurologic disorders.