ABOUT HIV/AIDS

HIV

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system and destroys the body’s natural defenses.

Over 56,000 Americans become infected with HIV every year.

Every day in Kentucky, a new person is infected with HIV.

There is no vaccine for HIV.

HIV is 100% preventable.

AIDS

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

AIDS is condition that happens when the HIV virus destroys too many disease-fighting white bloods cells (called CD4 cells).

A healthy person has somewhere between 500 and 1500 CD4 cells in each cubic millimeter of blood. A person with AIDS has less than 200.

When people with HIV develop AIDS, they lose the ability to fight infections and certain cancers. They develop opportunistic infections, which are caused by germs that normally don’t make healthy people sick but in people with AIDS, seize the ‘opportunity’ of a weak immune system.

More than 18,000 people die of AIDS in the US every year.

There is no cure for AIDS.