HIV & AIDS

Children can contract HIV from their mothers prenatally, during birth, or during breastfeeding. Because of the early age at which children can begin developing HIV symptoms, they must be treated...

When HIV infection progresses to AIDS, the focus of treatment shifts from keeping the immune system healthy to the prevention of opportunistic infections. AIDS treatment and management often...

HIV is a managable disease if it is caught early so treatment can begin. The symptoms of HIV can be different in women than in men, and sometimes can disguise themselves and be hard to catch.

HIV infection leads to the destruction of white blood cells, which aid in fighting disease. When enough white blood cells are destroyed, infections that don't occur in otherwise healthy...

Advanced HIV-disease can lead to a number of skin problems. These range from mild skin rashes caused by viral, bacterial and fungal infections to skin cancers. Some skin problems associated with...

Regardless of whether the child has HIV or not, having a parent with HIV can have a major negative effect in the life of a child. Children who have HIV-positive parents will grow up in an...

Most HIV-positive patients do not develop symptoms until months or even years after contraction. When signs of an illness do arise, they can often be confused with something else. Depending on the...

AIDS is a syndrome that occurs as the fourth stage of HIV disease. Because it is a syndrome, several different types of conditions occur during AIDS. HIV weakens the immune system by infecting CD4...

HIV is a virus that targets certain cells of the immune system, which causes the immune system to become increasingly weak over time. When the immune system becomes weak, illness develops as a...

There are very few symptoms of HIV infection which occur in women that do not occur in men. There are differences in the degree of severity in which these symptoms occur, however. While men may...

HIV weakens the immune system over time through infection by targeting immune cells called CD4 cells. This viral action leads to effects on the body in three different stages of HIV disease. The...

An HIV infection is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. It is a debilitating condition that can damage the immune system and diminish white blood cell counts.

There are four different groups of conditions that occur during AIDS, which is the fourth stage of HIV disease. These include opportunistic infections, severe weight loss, cancers and conditions...

AIDS is a syndrome, which means that it is characterized by a number of different conditions. These include opportunistic infections, wasting syndrome, malignancies (cancers) and neurological...

Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is not actually a disease, but a syndrome. A syndrome includes a group of other conditions, all with the same root cause; in this case, infection with the...

It is important to understand the difference between HIV and AIDS. Although they are related illnesses, they are not the same. HIV is not just another term for AIDS. Testing positive for HIV does...

According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 2 million children living with HIV or AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, while another 100,000 are infected elsewhere in the world....

There are few symptoms of HIV infection that occur in women that do not occur in men, but there are differences in the severity of some of the symptoms. According to the Centers for Disease...

Managing AIDS, the fourth stage of HIV-disease, involves antiretroviral treatment along with controlling infections and other AIDS-defining illnesses. Because advanced HIV disease leads to...

To be diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a person must be HIV-positive. HIV exposure can occur through unprotected penetrative sex acts, through the use of shared...

HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system by targeting lymphocytes (cells of the lymphatic system that are involved in the body's immune response), including primarily CD4 T-cells. By...

During the third stage of HIV disease, called symptomatic HIV, you develop a chronic flu-like illness, along with night sweats, fungal infections and skin and respiratory problems. AIDS is the...

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the virus that caused AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). If you have HIV, your weakened defenses make you more susceptible to serious illnesses like...

There are a number of different types of prescription macrolide antibiotics available to treat specific types of bacterial infections, and the brand names of these drugs vary from country to...

The cornerstone of treatment for HIV is antiretroviral medicines, which are administered in a treatment plan called HAART. Other treatments for HIV include maintaining a healthy lifestyle and...

Human immunodeficiency virus, commonly known as HIV, is a retrovirus that is spread through blood-to-blood contact with an infected individual. HIV is most commonly transmitted through unprotected...

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can damage the immune system over time and lead to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Medication for HIV can slow the progression of this disease....

The amount of time between the day a person is diagnosed with HIV to when he may discover he has progressed into AIDS can vary greatly. There is no real model to go by when answering this...

According to the international AIDS charity AVERT, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) kills an estimated 25 million people throughout the world every year. This devastating disease kills its...

Children who have HIV often experience symptoms differently than adults do. Many of the problems that children experience if they are infected with HIV differ from adults because adults are...

The period of time between when a person is infected with HIV and when their body begins making antibodies that can be detected in the blood is called the "window period." When a person is tested...

HIV-disease progresses to AIDS when cell-mediated immunity is lost--meaning that the immune system can no longer fight off either HIV or other infections. Before this occurs, symptomatic...

Because HIV disease has only mild, flu-like symptoms in its first stage and is asymptomatic it its second phase, many people only discover they are HIV-positive as the infection progresses toward...

The breakdown of the immune system caused by HIV infection leads to AIDS, a group of conditions that appear when the body's ability to fight off infection is lost. These include opportunistic...

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). HIV is transmitted in blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk. HIV attacks the...

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome. HIV is transmitted through sexual contact with an infected person and by sharing...

HIV has historically infected more men than women, but women are accounting for more new HIV cases and may soon catch up and even surpass men in number. AIDS trails only cancer and heart disease...

One of the reasons people often miss an early diagnosis of AIDS is because the symptoms vary significantly from person to person and often present themselves in different intensities and...

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) causes damage to the immune system, which makes it difficult to fight off infections and diseases. AIDS is caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)...

Although HIV can be difficult to live with, certain actions can make living with the disease more manageable. HIV infection weakens the body's defense systems, making it easier to contract other...

People who are HIV positive frequently suffer from a weakened immune system, which makes them vulnerable to many opportunistic infections. People with HIV or AIDS must manage such vulnerabilities...