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AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers.
HIV is spread most commonly by having sex with a partner infected with HIV. It also is spread through contact with infected blood. Today, techniques of screening and treating blood before transfusions make the risk of getting HIV from such transfusions extremely small.
HIV frequently is spread among injection drug users by the sharing of needles or syringes. Women can transmit HIV to their babies during pregnancy, birth, or breast feeding.
Studies of families of HIV-infected people have shown clearly that HIV is not spread through casual contact such as sharing eating utensils, swimming pools, or toilet seats.
Symptoms may occur in the form of a flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to HIV. This illness may include fever, headache, tiredness, and enlarged lymph nodes. These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection. At this stage, people are very infectious, and HIV is present in large quantities in genital fluids.
More persistent or severe symptoms may take a decade or more to surface after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. Some people may begin to have symptoms as soon as a few months, while others may be symptom-free for more than 10 years. During this time, however, the virus is actively growing and attacking the immune system.
As the immune system is attacked, complications begin. When the number of infection fighting cells in an HIV-infected person reach a very low level, the disease is called AIDS. People with AIDS have a greater risk of opportunistic infections, which rarely cause harm in healthy people.
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