What is HIV?

HIV stands for Human Immundofeficiency Virus, It is so called because it attacks the immune system, the body's defence against diseases. A person who has been infected with HIV is said to be HIV-positive. In most cases this infection will progressively weaken the immune system.

How does HIV pass from one person to another?

HIV can be passed when blood, semen or vaginal fluid of an infected person get into the blood stream of another. The risk of infection also depends on the viral load and on how easily the virus carried by the infectious fluids can gain access to the bloodstream.

Unprotected sexual intercourse (anal or vaginal sex without using a condom) is the most frequent way of transmission. Oral sex (contact of mouth and genitals) may also contain a risk of infection.

When sharing needles, infected blood can directly get into the blood stream.

An HIV-positive mother can transmit the virus to her child during pregnancy, delivery and through breast-feeding. If HIV in pregnant women is treated with combinations of anti-HIV drugs, the risk of transmission can be lowered considerably.

What is AIDS?

Judging from what we know today, one has to assume that the immune system of most HIV-positive people will be weakend after about 10 to 15 years. HIV-infections take various courses and depend on a whole range of indivudual conditions such as gender, age and the general state of the immune system. If untreated, HIV can cause so much damage that the immune system no longer works properly. When this happens, we say that a person has AIDS.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom. Strictly speaking AIDS is not a disease but a condition in which a person's immune system has become so weak that it can no longer fight off a whole range of diseases with which it would normally cope.

The illnesses which affect people with AIDS are often referred to as opportunistic infections, because HIV, by weakening the immune system, gives them the opportunity to take hold.

There is not yet a cure for AIDS, but there are good chances that AIDS may become a disease that can be treated like other chronical illnesses.