HIV is a virus that can make you sick.

HIV is a virus that can make you sick.

• HIV weakens your immune system, your body’s built-in defence against disease and illness.
• You can have HIV without knowing it. You may not look or feel sick for years, but you can still pass the virus on to other people.
• Without HIV treatment, your immune system can become too weak to fight off serious illnesses. HIV can also damage other parts of your body. Eventually, you can become sick with life-threatening infections. This is the most serious stage of HIV infection, called AIDS.

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

AIDS stands for Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome.