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HIV

Hiv And Aids



HIV infects certain cells and tissues of the human immune system and takes them out of commission, rendering a person susceptible to a variety of infections and cancers. These infections are caused by so-called opportunistic agents, pathogens that take advantage of the compromised immune system but that would be unable to cause infection in people with a healthy immune system. Rare cancers such as Kaposi's sarcoma also take hold in HIV-infected individuals. The collection of diseases that arise because of HIV infection is called acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. HIV is classified as a lentivirus ("lenti" means "slow") because the virus takes a long time to produce symptoms in an infected individual.



Additional topics

Medicine EncyclopediaGenetics in Medicine - Part 2HIV - Hiv And Aids, Hiv Life Cycle: Entering Cells, Hiv Life Cycle: Reproduction, Hiv's Immune-system Impairment Mechanism