What is HIV/AIDS?

Our body is designed by nature to fight off most infections with a interplay of various cells that together from the immune system. HIV is deadly because its attacks our immune cells the very core of our defence. As the immune system weakens, the body becomes susceptible to all kinds of infections. This stage of HIV infection is called AIDS. As the weakness continues, minor diseases like common cold or flu can become potentially dangerous. Eventually the victim dies due to some such secondary infection, not directly due to HIV.

AIDS can take about 7-10 years to develop after infection with HIV. No one knows for sure when a person with HIV will get AIDS. It varies person to person. Fortunately, HIV does not survive outside the body and easily destroy by heat. It is spread person to person through bodily fluids like semen and virginal fluids, infected blood and blood products, infected mother to her baby before birth, during birth or through breast milk. A person infected with virus is called an HIV positive person.