Thanks to treatment that slows down the effects of the virus, not everyone with HIV progresses to AIDS. You can’t get AIDS if you aren’t infected with HIV. AIDS is a condition that can happen as a result of an HIV infection when your immune system is severely weakened. The difference between HIV and AIDS is that HIV is a virus that weakens your immune system. What’s the difference between HIV and AIDS? Without treatment, HIV infections progress to AIDS in about 10 years. They may have additional illnesses that indicate that they have progressed to AIDS. People with AIDS have very low counts of certain white blood cells and severely damaged immune systems.
What is AIDS?ĪIDS is the final and most serious stage of an HIV infection.
When HIV has severely weakened your immune system, it can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).īecause HIV works backward to insert its instructions into your DNA, it is called a retrovirus. HIV infects and destroys cells of your immune system, making it hard to fight off other diseases. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus.
