Posts Tagged ‘hiv and aids’
About HIV and AIDS
Many people (not just kids, but adults, too) don’t really understand how HIV and AIDS are related, even though they hear these two words used together all the time.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency (say: ih-myoo-nuh-dih-fih-shun-see) virus. AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV is actually the virus that causes the disease AIDS.
HIV Hurts the Immune System. Read the rest of this entry »
HIV Treatment
HIV is a rare type of virus called a retrovirus, and drugs designed to disrupt the action of HIV are known as antiretrovirals or ARVs. They come in a variety of formulations designed to act at different stages of the life cycle of HIV.
The AIDS virus mutates rapidly, making it very adept at developing resistance to drugs. To minimize this risk, people living with HIV are usually treated with a combination of antiretroviral drugs that attack the virus on several fronts at once. Read the rest of this entry »