Facts about AIDS

AIDS is a disease caused by infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It is the currently the world’s single largest killer in people aged 15-59. Approximately 40 million people are said to be living with the illness and since its classification, some 25 million people are said to have died of AIDS. In 2007 alone, it is estimated that around 2 million people died from AIDS, and about 2.5 million became newly infected with HIV. It is thought that more than 90% of people with HIV live in the developing world.

Terminology
The term AIDS was first used in 1982 and is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Before this the condition had been though to only occur in the homosexual community and was known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency). Early research into the virus causing AIDS during 1984 turned up what was originally thought to be two different viruses, known as HTLV-III and LAV. These two names were dropped in 1986 when a new term describing both was decided upon. That name was HIV.

Diagnosis
Since HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, it has no recognizable symptoms of its own other than causing the patient to develop other illnesses much easier, in some cases a patient developing a particularly rare ailment may give reason to check for HIV. The test for HIV is fairly straightforward, testing the blood for the antibodies to the virus. If the antibodies are found in a patient then the test is positive for HIV infection. In 1993 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined people with AIDS as those who test positive for HIV and have a CD4 T cell count below 200 per mL.