HIV & AIDS

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family ) that can lead to Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections .

HIV infection in humans is now a pandemic. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981. It is estimated that about 0.6 percent of the world's population is infected with HIV.[3] In 2005 alone, AIDS claimed an estimated 2.4–3.3 million lives, of which more than 570,000 were children.

Even after HIV has progressed to diagnosable AIDS, the average survival time with antiretroviral therapy (as of 2005) is estimated to be more than 5 years. Without antiretroviral therapy, death normally occurs within a year.

"HIV is not AIDS, however, 9 out of 10 people with HIV will progress to AIDS within 10-15 years." Wikipedia

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Many people will not be aware they have HIV until signs and symptoms show in laters years.