May
is AIDS the susceptibillity to a disease resulting form HIV?
or is it the actual disease you get because your immune system is weaker?
Answer:
This question is more complicated than it looks!
The term “AIDS” refers to the immune system disease, rather than the opportunistic diseases you get as a result of the immune system disease.
However, in many parts of the world, AIDS is defined (distinguished from non-AIDS HIV disease) by the presence of one of the opportunistic diseases. The opportunistic diseases (PCP, KS, etc) are like symptoms of the underlying disease, AIDS.
Answer:
HIV is the initial infection. It won't show for many years. Then after a while of having the HIV infection, you can develop AIDS. (People are usually put on meds to slow this down so they die naturally before ever actually getting AIDS even though they're HIV positive.) AIDS is the disease you get because the HIV has weakened your immune system to a certain point. But AIDS itself doesn't kill you, it is the little things like a cold you pick up that your immune system normally would have fought off that makes you die.
So, all in all, HIV is what starts it all, AIDS is the say of having such a weak immune system from HIV making your body attack the T-cells in your blood, and then when you immune system is weak, you often pick up some other virus that kills you.
Answer:
HIV is the infection that you get first. You have to be HIV positive to develop AIDS. You can't just catch AIDS from another person. After a while, your immune system starts attacking itself (that's how HIV works, it weakens your immune system) and lowers the amount of T helper cells in your body. These cells tell your immune system what to do. When these T helper cells get down to a certain number (a very low number compared to normal) a person is considered to have AIDS. AIDS is like the end stage of HIV. Not each person with HIV will reach that stage, because it can be controlled with medication, but it is a likely result. So the answer is more like your second response, but there is more to it.
Answer:
AIDS is short for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It's considered a syndrome when the HIV virus lowers the while cell count to a certain number. When your immune system gets down to that point, yes you’re susceptible to diseases that wouldn't otherwise kill you.
So really, it's not a “disease” itself persay. There's not much difference between AIDS and the immune system repression that can happen from chemotherapy….it's just we only call a repressed immune system AIDS if it happens because of HIV.
Answer:
AIDS is the condition in which your body's immune system can't fend off diseases because the lymhpocytes have been diminished in the fight against HIV. In this stage, infected persons are susceptible to infections such as pneumonia. These infections are called opportunistic infections.
Answer:
AIDS is the second step in the infection. When you initially get the virus, you’ve HIV. They call it AIDS when your immune system weakens to a certain point.