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AIDS is a set of problems caused by HIV.

You become infected with HIV through intimate contact with an infected person- this means sexual contact, sharing of used needles, or through a blood transfusion (rare due to extensive screening).

After becoming infected you develop an initial illnessthat causes fever, aches, pains; as the virus attacks your body. After a few weeks the virus 'hides' in your immune cells where it slowly grows and replicates.

After a period of time, from months to years, the virus has destroyed enough of your immune cells- specifically T-Helper cells- that your body cannot fight off infections. People with HIV/AIDS develop infections that are uncommon or rare in normal health people. Tuberculosis, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, widespread shingles are frequent in HIV/AIDS patient; but they can also get fungal infections.

Eventually the body's defenses are so weakened that the patient dies from an opportunistic infection.

Learn more about this author, R Hoff.
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