In the 1980s, a condition called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known more widely as AIDS, began to show itself within particular demographics in the United States. Initially referred to as GRID, or “gay-related immune deficiency,” for its prevalence among gay men, the condition meant a certain death for patients. Those afflicted with the syndrome had lost function of their immune systems, allowing infectious diseases to devastate their bodies. Because the initial outbreak was observed in the gay community, a group that faced widespread prejudice, fear and stigma arose around the condition. Public misconception caused AIDS and the virus found to be correlated with it, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to be confused as just one affliction or dismissed as taboo topics altogether. Though decades of research have expelled some of the bias surrounding the two illnesses and their connection to the gay community, the exact difference between HIV and AIDS is nevertheless unclear to many. So what is the difference between HIV and AIDS?
HIV, for one, is a virus, a small infectious agent that multiplies itself by taking control of cells inside a host. AIDS, on the other hand, is a syndrome, a group of connected symptoms that are usually caused by a single disease or virus. When an individual contracts HIV, an initial period of illness occurs within two to six weeks as the virus attacks the cells of the immune system. After this period, however, the virus lies dormant, slowly depleting helper T cells within the immune system for up to 10 years without causing symptoms. When HIV reawakens after its dormant period, it more rapidly targets the T cells, dramatically lowering the immune system’s capability. AIDS is diagnosed when HIV has depleted the number of helper T cells to below 200 cells per microlitre of blood, allowing opportunistic infections, or infections that target a compromised immune system, to arise in a patient.
If HIV is diagnosed before it has developed the deadly symptoms of AIDS within a patient, antiretroviral drugs can be used to suppress HIV particles within the blood. While there is no known cure for the virus, antiretroviral therapy is effective in managing HIV and prolonging its dormant period, allowing patients who are HIV-positive to survive as long as noninfected individuals.