HIV is a viral infection that can be transmitted through sexual contact, through blood or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding.
HIV destroys CD4 cells — a specific type of white blood cell that plays a large role in helping your body fight disease. Your immune system weakens as more CD4 cells are killed. You can have an HIV infection for years before it progresses to AIDS.
People infected with HIV progress to AIDS when their CD4 count falls below 200 or they experience an AIDS-defining complication

Human can become infected with HIV in several ways, including:

-By having sex.

Human become infected if you have vaginal, anal or oral sex with an infected partner whose blood, semen or vaginal secretions enter your body.

The virus can enter your body through mouth sores or small tears that sometimes develop in the rectum or vagina during sexual activity.

-From blood transfusions.
In some cases, the virus may be transmitted during blood transfusions.

-By sharing needles.

HIV can be transmitted through needles and syringes contaminated with infected blood.

-During pregnancy or delivery or through breast-feeding.

Infected mothers can infect their babies. But by receiving treatment for HIV infection during pregnancy, mothers significantly lower the risk to their babies.



Symptoms and Complications

Symptoms of HIV infection appear 2 to 12 weeks after exposure.
At this point the virus begins rapidly taking over immune cells in the blood.

The symptoms of this phase are flu-like and include:
-diarrhea
-fatigue or weakness
-fever
-headache
-joint pain
-night sweats
-rash
-swollen glands
-weight loss
-yeast infections (of the mouth or vagina) that last a long time or occur frequently