Comparing+AIDS+and+HIV

__COMPARING AIDS AND HIV__ By Katie Hutchison This is a picture of real white blood cells with the HIV infection. What is the difference between AIDS and HIV? Many people in the world know what AIDS is, but have no idea what HIV is. They usually think that they are the same thing. However this is not true. They are both the same disease, but they are different stages within the one disease. First you get the HIV infection, and then you get AIDS, the final and fatal part of the disease.

What are the symptoms of AIDS and HIV? AIDS and HIV have different symptoms also. There are no symptoms of HIV because a person with the HIV infection won't feel any different inside or have any symptoms. The may look and feel fine, but their immune systems are suffering. Someone with AIDS will feel different. The symptoms will be weight loss, fevers, headaches, night sweats, fatigue, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and difficulty swallowing. If you have any of these symptoms go to your doctor and take the HIV test, it is the only way to see if you really have HIV. Many people don’t know they have had the HIV infection until AIDS has started and their immune systems have failed.

What does HIV do? What does AIDS do? This is a picture of the HIV virus in a white blood cell. The HIV infection attacks the CD-4 cells. Although there are billions of these cells created each day the virus infects them. Over what is sometimes years the balance between the amount of uninfected cells and the amount of infected cells changes. Over this time, which is sometimes very long, the immune system has been fighting the HIV infection. Then the immune system is very weak and cannot fight off many of the small illnesses which healthy immune systems could fight off. This is AIDS!

The picture on the right shows the HIV infection attacking the white blood cells.

media type="youtube" key="2OCGvqRALX8&rel=1" height="355" width="425" This is a video of a man describing the differences between AIDS and HIV, and what they both do to you and your immune system.

__Bibliography__ Information http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/murphy/HIV/HIVvsAIDS.html http://www.aids.org/info/hiv-aids-difference-between.html http://aids.hallym.ac.kr/d/ss/diffbwaidshiv.html http://www.avert.org/symptoms.htm http://www.smartersex.org/hiv/symptoms.asp Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OCGvqRALX8 Pictures http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1250625/2/istockphoto_1250625_white_blood_cells_in_the_bloodstream.jpg http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/murphy/HIV/HIVvsAIDS.html http://www.freeinfosociety.com/images/science/physiology/hiv1.jpg