What is HIV?
“HIV” stands for human immunodeficiency virus.
H – This particular virus can only infect human beings.
I – Immunodeficiency – HIV weakens your immune system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection. A weak or “deficient” immune system can’t fully protect you.
V – A virus can only reproduce itself by using the body of its host (for example, a person).
The difference beterrn HIV and AIDS
At the end of 2018, about 1.2 million people in the United States were living with HIV. Some groups of people in the United States are more likely to get HIV than others because of many factors, including the status of their sex partners, their risk behaviors, and where they live.
When people get HIV and don’t take HIV medicine, they will typically progress through three stages of disease, one after the other:
1) acute HIV infection
2) clinical latency
3) acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
