AIDS

            AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; meaning that one is able to catch it, it is a weakness in the body's system that fights diseases, and is a group of health problems that makes up a disease. A virus called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) causes AIDS. If the body is effected, it will try to fight the infection. The immune system will produce antibodies, which are special molecules in the blood with the function to attack foreign bacteria or viruses. They attack antigens in a number of ways, by: making them clump together, neutralising the toxins released, reacting with the bacterial cells so as to ensure attachment to the phagocytes, and also damaging the cell wall using hydrogen peroxide.
             The HIV virus is passed from one person to another via blood-to-blood or sexual contact. In addition, infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast-feeding. The virus is transmitted in body fluids: blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk and other blood containing fluids have all been proven to carry spread the virus. By killing or impairing cells of the immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. Individuals diagnosed with AIDS are susceptible to life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections, which are usually caused by microbes that usually don't cause illness in healthy people. .
             In people with AIDS, these infections are often severe and sometimes fatal, because the immune system is so ravaged by HIV that the body can't fight off certain bacteria, viruses and other microbes. The HHV virus (herpes) infects the same cells as the HIV virus, but infection with HHV will not lead to the development of AIDS. .