The best way to help a person with the HIV/AIDS virus is to begin learning as much as you can about it. The letters A-I-D-S stand for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

AIDS is a disease that destroys a person's immune system.

ACQUIRED means that this disease can spread from one person to another. Every person who has AIDS has received it from someone else who has the disease.

IMMUNE means protection; the body is normally protected from sickness by its ability to fight germs.

DEFICIENCY means lacking; the body is lacking the normal immune system for fighting germs.

SYNDROME means there are several sicknesses appearing together. Because a person with AIDS cannot fight germs, the AIDS patient may have several different sicknesses in his body at the same time. All this simply means that AIDS is a disease that destroys a person's immune system.

It is spread by a virus called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). A virus is a tiny agent - one of the smallest kinds of germs - that can grow and multiply inside living things. In some countries this sickness has become known as "slim's disease" because of its effect on the body.

What is an immune system?

An immune system is a defense system in a person's body. It can be compared to an army that has thousands of soldiers and weapons. There are army barracks or forts set up at different places in the body. There are several in the neck, there are several under the arms, and there are several on the upper part of the inside of the legs. These forts are called lymph nodes. You may have noticed some pain in these areas when you've been sick. That's because the defense forces are gathering to go into action. If the disease is very serious, these forts may even be turned into factories that produce more and more soldiers and weapons.

The HIV virus causes AIDS, but the virus itself does not kill a person directly. What actually kills an AIDS patient are other diseases that attack the body after its defenses have fallen.

To say that a person has Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome simply means that he has a disease that causes a part of the defense system to stop working properly. Soldiers that should be defending the body are taken prisoner and made to work for the virus so they cannot fight anymore. Actually, it's more complicated than that, but the end result is that some of the main soldiers are no longer present to defend the body.

Normally the body has more soldiers than it needs at most times, and when soldiers are killed, the body works to replace them. So as HIV kills off soldiers, the total number goes down gradually, without the infected person noticing any change. At first a few missing soldiers are not noticed, and those that are left do a very good job. And since the virus is good at hiding, there is not a big battle in one place, and that is not noticed either. But sooner or later, usually after 7-8 years in an adult, or just a few years in a baby, so many soldiers are killed that the body cannot defend itself well, and the infected person begins to get sick from other germs. HIV can spread to other people before the infected person feels sick or knows that he has the disease.

The HIV virus causes AIDS. The virus itself does not kill a person directly. It simply wipes out his army so that when another enemy (another disease) attacks, he is defenseless. What actually kills an AIDS patient are other diseases that attack the body after its defenses have fallen. In his weakened state, even a cold can be very serious. It may take some time, but eventually diseases will destroy the defenseless body. Often, the culprit that actually kills the victim is a common disease like tuberculosis. The victim dies because his body cannot fight back.

How is AIDS Spread?