First the basics: what is AIDS? AIDS
(acquired immune deficiency syndrome)
is a condition caused by a virus called HIV.
This virus attacks the immune system,
the body's "security force" that fights off infections.
When the immune system
breaks down, you lose this protection and can develop
many serious, often deadly
infections and cancers.
they take advantage of the body's weakened defenses.
You have heard it said that
someone "died of AIDS." This is not entirely accurate,
since it is the opportunistic
infections that cause death. AIDS is the condition that
lets the OIs take hold.
And what is HIV? HIV is a virus, like the flu or cold.
A virus is really nothing but a set
of instructions for making new viruses, wrapped up in
some fat, protein and sugar.
Without living cells, a virus can't do anything—it's like
a brain with no body. In order to
make more viruses (and to do all of the other nasty things
that viruses do), a virus has
to infect a cell. HIV mostly infects CD4 cells, also known
as T cells, orT-helper cells.
These are white blood cells that coordinate the immune system
to fight disease, much
like the quarterback of a football team. Once inside the cell,
HIV starts producing millions
of little viruses, which eventually kill the cell and then go out
to infect other cells. All of the
drugs marketed to treat HIV work by interfering with this process.
There, that wasn't so hard, was it?
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