New Internationalist  HIV/AIDS A primer  Issue 346  What is
AIDS?  Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a set of
symptoms that indicate a person has become infected with a virus
that has seriously damaged the body’s immune system. A key
symptom is the development of one or more of a range of
‘opportunistic’ diseases.  And what is HIV?  AIDS is caused by
HIV — the human immunodeficiency virus. HIV attacks the body’s
immune system, especially CD4 cells (also known as T-cells)
which help fight infections. HIV invades these cells and tricks
them into reproducing copies of the AIDS virus.  How does the
virus work?  Eventually the virus destroys the CD4 cell. The HIV
‘copies’ then find more CD4 cells to attack. Finally, so many
CD4 cells are destroyed that the immune system breaks down
leaving it defenceless against deadly invaders. Today there are
sophisticated means of measuring damage to the immune system.
One of them is your CD4 cell count. The average healthy person
has a CD4 count of 800 to 1500. A pe