HIV (Human Immunodeficiency ["im-you-no-de-fish-en-see"] Virus -- is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). HIV attacks and kills the cells in our bodies that keep us from getting diseases. This makes people with HIV get illnesses that healthy people do not get. When a person with HIV gets very sick from pneumonia, some kinds of cancer, and other life-threatening diseases, they are said to have AIDS. AIDS is a fatal disease. Here is more information on HIV/AIDS.

Once infected with HIV, a person may or may not experience any symptoms. People who do experience symptoms might have a flu-like illness within one or two months after infection. Symptoms can include fever, headache, tiredness and/or enlarged lymph nodes. These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for the symptoms of more common viral infections, like a cold.

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, the AIDS virus) helps TB germs make you sick by attacking the germ fighters in your body. If you are infected with HIV and with TB germs, you have a very big chance of getting TB disease. The TB germs are much more likely to attack your lungs and other parts of the body. You can be cured, but it takes longer to cure someone with TB disease who also has HIV infection. If you think you might have HIV infection, talk to your doctor about getting an HIV test.

Averagely, it takes ten years for an HIV + positive person to develop the disease condition known as AIDS. However the years may be lower or higher depending on the treatment and care such patient receives. REF: Symptoms of AIDS

According to the CDC, prior to 1996, scientists estimated that about half the people with HIV would develop AIDS within 10 years after becoming infected. This time varied greatly from person to person and depended on many factors, including a person's health status and their health-related behaviors. Since 1996, the introduction of powerful anti-retroviral therapies has dramatically changed the progression time between HIV infection and the development of AIDS.

About half of people with HIV develop AIDS within 10 years, but the time between infection and onset of AIDS can vary greatly. The severity of the HIV-related illness or illnesses differs from person to person and is dependent on many factors, including overall health status. Today there are promising new medical treatments that can postpone many of the illnesses associated with AIDS.

Many people who use psychoactive substances develop tolerance to the substances over time. To feel the same pleasurable effect, they will need higher doses and require faster psychoactive results. Drugs that are injected absorb into the body faster. Moreover, since using injection needles and syringes are generally only available with a prescription, substance users will borrow needles from friends. Shared needles can be contaminated with HIV, hepatitis and other viruses or bacteria.

The following are known risk factors for HIV. You may be at increased risk of infection if any of the following apply to you:

This means she has two copies of a gene that codes for an enzyme involved in glycogen storage; one copy is healthy, the other is defective. She can pass along either copy to her offspring with equal probability. (If the father is also a carrier, their offspring has a 25% chance of inheriting the disease, and a 50% chance of becoming a carrier.)

No. HIV is an unusual virus because a person can be infected with it for many years and yet appears to be perfectly healthy. But the virus gradually multiplies inside the body and eventually destroys the body's ability to fight off illnesses. It is still not certain that everyone with HIV infection will get AIDS. It seems likely that most people with HIV will develop serious problems with their health. But this may be after many years.

No. The test for HIV can only tell you if you have been infected or not. Transmission of the virus does not necessarily occur every time exposure occurs. The only way for an individual to tell if he/she has been infected with HIV is to be tested. If you are unsure of your partner's status, you may want to consider talking to him/her about it and using protection (latex condoms or dental dams) to reduce your risk.

A person can have TB infection for years without any signs of disease. But if that person's immune system gets weak, the infection can quickly turn into TB disease. Also, if a person who has a weak immune system spends time with someone with infectious TB, he or she may become infected with TB bacteria and quickly develop TB disease. Because HIV infection weakens the immune system, people with TB infection and HIV infection are at very high risk of developing TB disease.

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Globally, 45 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. By region, this percentage varies considerably, from 57% in Sub-Saharan Africa, to 28% in East Asia and the Pacific. In 2004, 17.6 million women were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

of 2003, approximately 15 million children have lost one or both parents due to HIV/AIDS. By 2010, this number is expected to increase to 25 million. Learn more about USAID's efforts to improve the lives of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

I - Immuno-deficiency: because the effect of the virus is to create a deficiency, a failure to work properly, within the body's immune system. V - Virus: because this organism is a virus, which means one of its characteristics is that it is incapable of reproducing by itself. It reproduces by taking over the machinery of the human cell.