According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the difference between HIV and AIDS is that AIDS is the final infection resul.ting from the progressive disease that starts with the HIV virus entering the bloodstream. HIV belongs to a subset of viruses called retroviruses.
The HIV is a slow virus that usually causes AIDS. The virus progresses from the first HIV infection in the blood to the final outcome, which is AIDS. It’s a progressive virus and disease. Aids/HIV is the leading cause of death of people in the US between the ages of 25-44.
HIV enters your body and bloodstream through the mucous membranes or through HIV virus-infected blood transfusions. It also enters through exchange of bodily fluids such as sexual transmission, or through contact with unsterilized dental instruments and equipment or by using unsterilized hypodermic needles.
Blood to blood contact or body fluid to blood contact usually is needed to contract the virus. Once the HIV virus enters your bloodstream, this retrovirus slowly begins to attack your immune system. At first, the HIV virus destroys your white blood cells that normally kill off invading viruses.
As the HIV virus kills off healthy immune system cells, you lose your immunity to the most common infections. As the HIV virus destroys more white blood cells, this results in the deterioration and destruction of your body’s immune function. At a certain point when immunity to the most common infections is gone, the virus progresses to the stage which leads to AIDS.
AIDS is the final stage of the HIV infection. A person is said to have AIDS when the CD4 count drops below 200. The patient also would be said to have one or more opportunistic infections. In medical terms, the opportunistic infections called the OIs, refer to normal infections that a healthy person would be able to fight off.
The four stages of the HIV infection are as follows:
1) Healthcare professionals call the period following infection the window. This is the period that reflects the window of time between your infection and the time that antibodies develop. Antibodies are your bloodstream’s way of fighting off viruses and bacteria. When you take an HIV test, the technologists look for antibodies in your blood, not the virus.
2) The second stage of HIV infection is called seroconversion. At this point, your body begins to develop numerous antibodies to fight off the HIV virus in your body. During this period what you feel usually are flu-like symptoms.
You’re very infections to others coming into contact with your body fluids or blood at this point. You should not give blood donations or have unprotected sex. Also tell your dentist that you’re infectious with HIV virus. If you’re getting vaccinated, tell the healthcare provider that you are highly infectious with HIV virus at this early stage. Protect others from coming into contact with your blood and body fluids.
3) The third stage is called symptom free. During this period you may have no symptoms at all. The symptom-free stage lasts from 6 months to well over ten years. The medical world is not sure why some people are living symptom-free for so long. The problem in the symptom-free stage, is that you’re not feeling any illness, but you still can infect others with your virus through blood and body fluid exchange.
4) The final stage of HIV virus infection is called AIDS. This is the period when your microbe-fighting TCELLs drop to below 200 and you start coming down with the opportunistic infections (OIs). The progression is in a linear, chronic time line leading from infection with the HIV virus to full-blown AIDS.
5) The HIV virus at this late stage has slowly attacked your body’s immune system. Immunity has waned so much by this time that it finally has been destroyed. Your T-cell count is down so low that your body no longer can fight off any type of infections.
Once this happens, you are diagnosed with the final stage of the disease called AIDS. But long before you’ve reached full-blown AIDS, there are drugs/medicines available–but at a cost. That’s why you need to treat your HIV infection as early as possible.
You’re never cured as long as you’re still HIV-positive. But with the proper treatments, you can, in many cases, hold off reaching full-blown AIDS for many years, as long as you keep getting the medical treatments.
Famous people who were said in media reports to have died from AIDS include author/scientist Isaac Asimov who contracted AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion after getting bypass surgery; musician, Liberace; actor, Rock Hudson, and several other celebrities and/or wealthy people in the news.
According to the Isaac Asimov FAQ, the author died of "heart and kidney failure, which were complications of the HIV infection he contracted from a transfusion of tainted blood during his December 1983 triple-bypass operation." HIV was not revealed as the cause of his death until 2002, when his widow Janet published the memoir It’s Been a Good Life.
With an estimated 900,000 persons with HIV/AIDS in the United States living longer, many are seeking to obtain routine dental care, as well as relief from the discomfort and disability associated with concomitant oral lesions. Invasive but common dental procedures present added risk of complications for patients with HIV/AIDS. For further information on dental treatments for patients that are HIV positive, see the site, Dental Patients Who Are HIV Positive.
The history of AIDS is a fascination subject to research. Media reports note the earliest cases of AIDS being reported in 1981. According to news reports, the virus was said to have spread from humans eating HIV-infected monkeys, as monkey meat traditionally had been eaten historically until present times in various tropical areas. However, Charles Higham, author of "Howard Hughes, The Secret Life," reports startling evidence of the HIV virus existing prior to 1981, according to the Panache Report site.
Higham presents startling evidence that the AIDS virus may have existed prior to 1981, when the virus first had been reported in the media. The mysterious death of a British soldier in 1959 may have been the first AIDS casualty, according to the Panache Report site. The soldier’s blood was frozen for laboratory storage. Years later when scientists analyzed that frozen blood sample, it tested positive for HIV.
In the 1960’s, according to the Panache Report site, a black male prostitute, from in St. Louis, died of mysterious ailments, the doctors were baffled and decided to store his blood and organs. Years later, the organs and blood tested positive for HIV. For further research, see the book, Howard Hughes, The Secret Life, by Charles Higham. You also can browse the book at that Google Book site.
The point is that understanding the difference between HIV and AIDS is about realizing that once the HIV virus enters your bloodstream/body, the virus progresses from being infected with the HIV virus for life to the final stage of full-blown AIDS that destroys your body’s immune system (your T-Cells) so that you can’t fight off the simplest infections.
That’s why if you are tested and are found to be HIV-positive, it’s important to get treated as early as possible before the disease progresses to the full-blown final stage, of AIDS, the disease. Prevention is the best way to keep the HIV virus from entering your body. For reliable information, see the CDC’s informational site on HIV/AIDS.
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