AIDS

AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is not a virus but a late stage of untreated HIV infection — the point at which the immune system has been damaged badly enough that the body struggles to fend off infections it would normally shrug off. Put simply: HIV is the cause, AIDS is its worst-case outcome.

The crucial point is that this stage is not inevitable. With antiretroviral therapy, the vast majority of people who are diagnosed early and take their medication consistently keep the virus suppressed and their immune system stable, and never progress to AIDS at all. Nor was AIDS ever any particular group’s disease — anyone can acquire HIV through specific routes (see Is HIV a “gay disease”?).

Register note: distinguishing “HIV” from “AIDS” matters. Call someone a “person living with HIV,” not an “AIDS patient” — the latter is both inaccurate and recasts a manageable chronic infection as a terminal one.

Common misreading: using the two as synonyms, or wielding “AIDS” as an insult or a lurid label. It is a medical term for a health condition that calls for treatment and support, not a moral verdict.