Incurable STDs - Infections

HIV/AIDS I

Human Immuno- deficiency Virus (HIV) (cross-section)

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.