不能治愈性传播疾病    Incurable STDs

人类免疫缺陷病毒/艾滋病 I 

1. 它是什么？
我们在此正讨论的是同一个疾病的不同病程——HIV感染的第一个病程及其最后的严重病程艾滋病(AIDS)。

2. 它由什么所引起？
本病（的病原体）全称叫人类免疫缺陷病毒（Human Immunodeficiency Virus，HIV）（为了方便记忆，中国大陆将它简称为艾滋病病毒或HIV。除非必要，本节下面都使用这两个称谓——译者注），它侵害和逐渐摧毁人体的免疫系统。所以，随着时间过去，机体变得容易受到所有类型的“机会感染（opportunistic infections）”侵犯，也就是通常并不损害健康人，但是有机会袭击免疫力脆弱或缺乏免疫力的机体感染。最终，机体免疫力缺乏到如此的程度，以至于不再有能力对抗外界任何感染，并且导致“免疫缺乏综合征”，既这种疾病典型而又严重的复合症状。疾病发展到这个阶段就称为获得性免疫缺陷综合征（Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome，简称AIDS）。此时，患者的病情越来越严重，直至最终导致死亡。

HIV/AIDS  I

1. What is it?
We are talking here about stages of the same disease - the first stages of a viral infection (HIV-infection) and its serious, final stage (AIDS)

2. What causes it?
The disease is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which attacks and gradually destroys the immune system. Over time, therefore, the body becomes vulnerable to all sorts of “opportunistic infections”, i.e. infections which normally do not hurt a healthy person, but which find an opportunity to strike a body when its defenses are weak, i.e. when its immune system is deficient. Eventually, the deficiency becomes so great that the body is no longer able to fight back and develops an “immune deficiency syndrome”, i.e. a combination of severe symptoms typical of this disease. This is the stage called AIDS (Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome). The patient’s health problems become ever more severe and finally lead to death.