- Knowledgebase: Questions about Sex, Puberty, and Periods
- Questions about Sex, Puberty, and Periods, for adolescents and their parents.
- 5. What is AIDS? - Top
- AIDS is an illness that damages a person's ability to fight off disease, leaving the body open to attack from unusual types of cancer and ordinarily innocuous infections. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is not a single disease, but rather a constellation of symptoms caused by infections and/or cancers, primarily due to the disruption of the immune system by an underlying viral infection. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP, caused by a protozoan parasite) and Kaposi's sarcoma (K S, a formerly rare cancer) have been the most common causes of death in people with AIDS in the U.S.
AIDS is believed to be caused by the virus called HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The virus attacks certain types of white blood cells, principally T4 cells (also called helper T-cells) and monocytes/macrophages, which both have important functio ns in the immune system. The disruption of the function of these cells lies at the heart of the immunodeficiency that characterizes AIDS. The virus also infects and damages other types of cells: damage to the lining of the intestine sometimes causes wasti ng (severe weight loss); damage to certain kinds of nerve cells sometimes causes dementia or other neurological problems, etc.
- Updated: March 10, 2001
-
[e-Mail me the Knowledgebase]- [Search
our Knowledgebase] - [Question Not Answered?]
|
