HIV is the name given to an infection caused by a virus with the same name HIV and HIV
stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is a virus that attacks the immune system
which is why it’s called immunodeficiency virus and so it causes the immune system to
become weak and when it becomes weak, people become unwell.
When a person first catches HIV, very often, they may not have any symptoms at all. Many
people can live for many years after catching HIV with no symptoms but some people develop
symptoms very soon after they catch HIV which are basically the symptoms of a severe viral
infection. So they may develop flu-like symptoms—cough, fever, sweats, enlarged lymph nodes, and they
may feel very unwell. When a person first catches the HIV, as I
said before, they may not develop any symptoms at all. But after they’ve had HIV infection
for a while, sometimes for several years, as the immune system becomes weaker, the body
stops being able to fight off simple infections that live normally in the environment. When
people become unwell with these infections that live commonly in the environment, that
people with normal immune systems are able to fight off themselves, that is said to be
called AIDS. AIDS basically refers to a group of illnesses that people with normal immune
systems rarely get and these illnesses may affect all the systems in their body. They
may affect the brain, skin, lungs, and other internal organs. When people have these infections,
they are usually extremely unwell and without treatment, most of them will die.
HIV is treated now very effectively with medicines called antiretroviral. Antiretroviral attack
the virus and stop it from affecting people’s immune systems. Now, with effective treatment,
people don’t develop what used to be called AIDS so people’s immune systems do not deteriorate
and people do not become unwell. But most importantly, people on effective treatment
for HIV can’t transmit the virus to other people. So they are not infectious. That’s
probably one of the most important things that people should know about HIV.
A person on effective treatment is basically very similar to somebody who doesn't have
HIV at all and that they can’t transmit the virus to other people. They can’t transmit
it to their sexual partners but neither can women who are pregnant transmit it to their
babies which are something that used to happen when treatment was not available.
We now know also that the life expectancy of a person who has HIV and who is on effective
treatment will be the same and sometimes even longer that the life expectancy of somebody
without HIV. Treatment has been very successful in this area.