Question
What is the difference between HIV and AIDS?
22 April 2008. Related: All topics.
What is the difference in being told you have HIV and being told you have AIDS. I thought once you had AIDS you wouldn’t have long to live.
Answer
These terms are slightly historical even though they are commonly used nowadays. They were developed to make a distinction between the stage when one is generally in a stable condition and when one is at high risk of developing or already has developed opportunistic infections.
The ‘magic’ number in one of the most often cited definitions (that of the CDC) is a CD4 count of 200. Above that one is HIV-positive, below that one has AIDS. There are some more conditions to that: presence/absence of opportunistic infections, etc.
Nowadays and in the past, there are many people who have started treatment when they had AIDS according to the above definition. The therapy worked and their immune system recovered from the damage, reaching normal values of the CD4.
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