What are HIV and AIDS?

What is HIV?

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. This damages your immune system, making it easier for you to get sick. HIV is transmitted during sex, but condoms can protect you.

HIV is an infection that can lead to AIDS.

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It's a virus that destroys certain cells in your immune system (your body's defense against a disease that helps you stay healthy). When HIV damages your immune system, it is easier to become seriously ill and even die from infections that your body would normally be able to fight off.

About 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV, and more than 38,000 new infections occur each year. Most people with HIV have no symptoms for many years and feel perfectly fine, so they may not even know they have it.

Once you have HIV, the virus stays in your body for life. There is no cure for HIV, but medication can help you stay healthy. HIV medications reduce or even stop the chances of transmitting the virus to other people. Studies show that using HIV treatment as prescribed can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood so much that it may not even show up on a test; when this happens, you cannot transmit HIV sexually.

Treatment is really important (which is why getting tested is so important). Without treatment, HIV can lead to AIDS. But with medication, people with HIV can live long, healthy lives and stop the spread of HIV to others.

What is the difference between HIV and AIDS?

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV and AIDS are not the same. And people living with HIV don't always have AIDS.

HIV is a virus that is transmitted from person to person. Over time, HIV destroys an important type of cells in your immune system (called CD4 cells or T cells) that help protect you against infection. When you don't have enough of these CD4 cells, your body can't fight infections like it normally does.

AIDS is the disease caused by the damage that HIV does to your immune system. You have AIDS when you catch dangerous infections or have a very low CD4 cell count. AIDS is the most serious stage of HIV and leads to death overtime.

Without treatment, it usually takes about 10 years for a person living with HIV to develop AIDS. The treatment slows the damage caused by the virus and can help people stay healthy for decades.

How do you catch HIV?

HIV is carried in semen (semen), vaginal secretions, anal mucus, blood, and breast milk. The virus enters your body through cuts or sores on the skin and through mucous membranes (such as the inside of the vagina, rectum, and opening to the penis). You can get HIV by:

  • having vaginal or anal sex
  • sharing needles or syringes for injecting drugs, piercings, tattoos, etc.
  • getting stuck with a needle containing HIV-infected blood
  • introducing HIV-infected blood, semen (semen), or vaginal secretions into open cuts or sores on the body

HIV is usually transmitted through unprotected sex. Using condoms and/or dental dams every time you have sex and not sharing needles can help protect you and your partners from HIV. If you have HIV, treatment can reduce or even stop your chances of passing the virus to others through sex. If you don't have HIV, there is also a daily medicine called PrEP that can protect you from HIV.

HIV can also be transmitted to babies during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. An HIV-positive pregnant woman can take medication to significantly reduce her baby's risk of contracting HIV.

HIV is not transmitted through saliva (spitting), so you CAN NOT get HIV from kissing, sharing food or drink, or using the same fork or spoon. HIV is also not transmitted by hugging, holding hands, coughing, or sneezing. And you can't catch HIV from a toilet seat.

Long ago, some people contracted HIV through transfusions of infected blood. But now giving or receiving blood at medical centers is completely safe. Doctors, hospitals, and blood donation centers don't use needles more than onetime, and donated blood is tested for HIV and other viruses.

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