AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome which means a person can get infected with a virus called the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which will weaken his/her immune system thereby making that person prone to a number of diseases. Get to know more information and facts about AIDS. Read on and learn from these 10 facts about HIV and AIDS.
10 Facts about AIDS
A person who is HIV positive does not necessarily mean has AIDS.
AIDS/HIV is the 6th leading cause of death among Americans aged 15 – 24.
AIDS is acquired by – having sex with a person infected with HIV/AIDS, sharing a needle with a person infected with HIV/AIDS, through blood transfusion, being born from an infected mother, drinking an infected mother’s breast milk.
Symptoms of AIDS vary and may mimic other diseases/illnesses.
Symptoms may not be immediately noticed and may sometimes take months or years before one experiences them.
Another interesting fact about AIDS. In fact, tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among HIV-infected people in Africa.
Over thirty-five (35) million people have HIV and five (5) million of them have developed AIDS.
The number of female adolescents infected with AIDS has dramatically increased between 1987 and 1994.
To date, there is no known cure for AIDS, and medicines given to AIDS victims are only to slow down the damage caused by the virus.
Over 20 drugs have been developed to stop HIV/AIDS replication. Medicines reduce the amount of virus in the blood but do not completely cure AIDS.
