What is the difference between HIV-infected people and people with AIDS?

Answer 1

Being HIV-positive:

Being HIV-positive simply means that you have tested positive for being infected with the virus known as HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), and can pass it on.

Having AIDS:

Having AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) means that you are HIV-positive AND that the progressive damage done to your immune system (usually over many years) has weakened it to a point at which you can no longer fight off a range of defined opportunistic infections (unless you receive treatment to support and restore some of your immune function).

Although AIDS is (with time) an almost inevitable consequence of being infected with untreated HIV; most people who receive timely treatment for their HIV infection will never develop AIDS.

The AIDS diagnosis is not generally reversible, so it does not necessarily indicate anything about your current state of health. Indeed, in many countries, the term AIDS is thought to be so meaningless and laden with stigma that it is no longer used.

AIDS is not a single disease but a spectrum of diseases caused by having reduced immunity due to HIV.

Answer 2

an hiv-infected person is one having the hiv infection ,while a person with AIDS means that he/she has different symptoms (diseases). Some of these are not very visible in the beginning. Most symptoms (diseases) can be treated.

Answer 3

Someone who has HIV is a person that has tested positive for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) antibodies. This means that the person has been infected with the HIV virus. It's in his or her body. That's all. Someone who has AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a person that has been determined to have either a CD4+ T cell count below 200 cells per µL (a healthy person has 500 - 1500 cells per µL), or the occurrence of specific diseases in association with an HIV infection, i.e., pneumocystis pneumonia, toxoplasmosis of the brain, wasting, Kaposi sarcoma and other viral induced cancers.

Technically, once a person has been diagnosed with AIDS, he or she retains that designation for the rest of his or her life. Even if the person's CD4+ T cell count is raised to 600 or 700, the viral load is undetectable, and a headache is the worst malady he or she suffers for five years, the person is still considered to have AIDS. However, once they regain a normalcy of health, many persons living with AIDS will disclose their status as HIV-positive only, in order to avoid the stigma of AIDS that still invokes fear and/or pity, even among other HIV-positive people.

A person who has HIV is better referred to as "infected with HIV," or simply, "HIV-positive." A person who has AIDS is better referred to as a "person living with AIDS." This terminology suggests that HIV or AIDS is part of a person's life without allowing it to define the whole person.

Answer 4

If you are HIV positive, then you have the HIV virus.

If you are HIV negative then you do not have the HIV virus.

Answer 5

HIV is the virus - AIDS is the disease. HIV causes the body's immune system to 'attack' itself. AIDS is the physical symptoms the patient experiences.

Answer 6

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.