What is HIV??

Answer 1

HIV is a virus which is transferred from person to person via blood to blood contact.

I dont know very much about it but know that a person can have it and live a 'normal' life for years- decades even befor they get too bad or the HIV moves into becomming full blown aids (which is dfferent to HIV)

I know it is life threatening, I know it is life shortening and I know there is alot of fear and stigma around it..

If you want to find out more you could try asking nhs direct via a onsite question the address is www.nhs.org

Answer 2

'HIV' a bunch of laboratory phenomena. Nothing else, nothing more. Whenever someone talks about 'having HIV' it means they had antibodies that happened to react on the non-specific HIV antibody tests.

AIDS is a collection of diseases all of which have known causes and cures. AIDS has a convoluted and complex diagnostic system that has so many degrees of freedom that just about anything in the presence of a positive (reactive) antibody test can be called AIDS.

Even AIDS differs detween the United States and Canada. Canada doesn't recognize a low CD4 count as AIDS as they do in the US.

In Africa AIDS is a collective of non-specific and utterly common symptoms. There is no shortage of illness in Africa and most often someone can be given and AIDS diagnosis without even being given a single antibody test.

HIV is a sham and AIDS is a renamed collection of old illnesses. Don't buy all the nonsense about AIDS drugs saving lives, they're awful drugs and hurt and mame a lot of people.

Answer 3

Hi there
Let's start before HIV and track where it originally came from!!!
Before the HIV virus was discovered there was a virus called the AIV virus that was founded in animals(monkeys in africa),and somehow let's say a monkey had a scar and attacked a human in the wild so doing so transmitting the disease to him......the AIV virus = animal imune virus.....then got transmitted to humans and so it became the human imune virus=HIV....
Some poeple get it wrong of how you die of the virus the virus attack your imune system making you very ill when having a normal flew,the virus attacks your imune system making your body's defences very weak against any sickness you can try to supplement and take medicane to prolong your life but because it is in your bloodsystem and everywhere in your body you can not get rid of the virus.......down the line this HIV will mature and it will become AIDS,when it come down to AIDS things will spiral out of control quickly for AIDS is when it is so advanced that it attacs your organs kidney heart ect it needs to spread as it's supplies in the bloodsystem ran out so it has to attack other parts of the body where there is blood supplies,it is a really slow death but it can be handled and you can live normal but like i said at the end the virus will win unless someone finds a cure........
I hope that this information helped you alot!!!
Cheers

Answer 4

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the virus that causes AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV attacks the body's immune system, mostly white blood cells (T-cells). Your immune system is what fights against infections to keep your body healthy. White blood cells play a key role in keeping a person protected from disease. If your immune system is under attack, it can't protect your body against infections and you can easily get sick. Your body is likely to get many illnesses, so almost any symptom can occur when you have HIV.

HIV is spread from an infected person to another person through vaginal, oral, and anal sex. It is can also be spread through using IV drugs and sharing needles or syringes with an infected person. HIV can also be passed from an infected pregnant woman to her baby before or during birth and during breast-feeding. The HIV virus is found in and can be passed on by semen, vaginal fluids, blood, and breast milk. Very small amounts of the HIV virus are found in saliva, tears, and urine. But there is only a very, very low risk that the HIV virus can be passed on by these 3, since the amount of HIV virus in them is so low.

People with HIV can usually remain very healthy for many years after they have been infected. The virus slowly attacks the immune system, and at a certain point can develop into AIDS. However, avoiding infections, treating infections early, getting enough exercise, eating a healthy diet, and living a healthy lifestyle all lower the chances of HIV developing into AIDS.

30% of people with HIV develop AIDS within 5 years. This means that they get a serious disease, such as cancer or pneumonia, within 5 years. Some people just develop mild symptoms, such as swollen glands, diarrhea, fever, and weight loss within these 5 years. About 50% of people with HIV develop AIDS within 10 years of getting HIV.

Answer 5

The virus that causes AIDS. It affects the body's ability to fight infection from bacteria or other viruses by attacking the immune system (specifically the T-lymphocyte cells, the body's defence against everything from the common cold to septicaemia).

AIDS stands for 'acquired immunodeficiency syndrome'. A person infected with HIV doesn't necessarily have AIDS. If they get anti-viral treatment for the HIV it reduces the viral spread in their body.

Answer 6

This is a question better answered at length using a google search or a textbook.

Quickest summary possible. It is a sexually transmitted virus that ruins the immune system causing AIDS so that you catch infections and cannot fight against them.

The fall in the immune system also allows various, otherwise rare cancers to attack the body.

Answer 7

to the person that said HIV is a myth and with the links to the websites that say it's never been isolated....

Isolation of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 biological clones from peripheral blood lymphocytes.

* Blaak H.

Department of Virology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Infectious variants of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of infected individuals by propagating the virus in co-cultures with healthy donor PBMC. Standardized culture protocols have been designed specifically for the isolation of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and proven effective for the isolation of virus from virtually all HIV-1-infected individuals. For the isolation of HIV-2, however, standard HIV-1 culture protocols have been only partially effective. While suitable for the isolation of HIV-2 from PBMC of individuals in advanced stages of disease, they appeared largely inadequate for the isolation of HIV-2 from asymptomatically HIV-2-infected individuals. This chapter describes a variant HIV isolation procedure with culture conditions adapted to the isolation of HIV-2 from PBMC of "healthy" HIV-2-infected individuals, i.e., individuals with high CD4+ T-cell numbers and no detectable viral RNA in plasma. By using a limiting dilution format, several biological clones representing individual HIV variants can be obtained from the PBMC of an infected individual. In addition, the frequency of PBMC infected with HIV-2 variants capable of propagating in vitro can be estimated.

Answer 8

dont listen to the people saying its aids as its not its actually the virus that leads to aids the medical name for it is Human Immuneity Virus and it basicly kills ur immune system

Answer 9

Aids

Answer 10

It is the national dyslexic foundation!