What is AIDS?
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is an illness that impairs the body's ability to fight infection, making the body extremely susceptible to life-threatening disease. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. When HIV (Human Immunodefieciency Virus) infects someone it attacts the bodys immune system, killing the natural T-cells, and enabling it to fight off infections. The person is now defenseless against disease and can even become deathly ill from a common cold. So whats the difference between HIV and AIDS? A healthy person has between 1000 - 1500 T-cells per mL of blood. When the T-cell count drops below 200 and they have an opportunistic infection they are said to have AIDS.Are you aware that?
- The Center for Disease Control estimates that 800,000 to 1.5 million people in the U.S. are infected with HIV.
- In the U.S., there are over 250,000 African-Americans and 120,000 Hispanics diagnosed with AIDS.
- AIDS and HIV among Blacks and Hispanics is increasing disproportionately in the U.S.
- In the United States, AIDS is the leading cause of death for men and women between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four.
- An infected woman who is pregnant has a one in three chance of giving it to her child.
- One out of every 300 Americans is infected.
- More Americans have died of AIDS than have died in the Gulf, Vietnam, and Korean Wars combined.
- It's preventable.
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