Medical Dictionary: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

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Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: Another name for HIV/AIDS.
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (condition): HIV is a sexually transmitted virus and AIDS is the progressive immune failure that HIV causes.
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (condition): HIV is a sexually transmitted virus and AIDS is the life-threatening immune failure that occurs late in the progression of HIV. AIDS was once in the top ten cause of death in the USA but has dropped out owing to better treatments and reduced transmission.

Very early stages of HIV just after infection resemble the flu or another viral infection. There then follows a latent stage (often years) with no symptoms, and then an early AIDS stage (also often years) with various symptoms, many of them non-specific and easy to misdiagnose. AIDS becomes much more characteristic in the latter stages of the disease where immune failure becomes almost total.

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the result of an infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This virus attacks selected cells of the immune, nervous, and other systems impairing their proper function. ¹

More information on medical condition: HIV/AIDS:

Footnotes:
1. excerpt from NINDS Neurological Manifestations of AIDS Information Page: NINDS

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