What Are the Similarities Between HIV & AIDS?

Surprisingly, there are few similarities between HIV and AIDS. As HIV is a virus and AIDS is a syndrome requiring specific conditions to be met for diagnosis, they are quite different. While you do not have to have AIDS to have HIV, you do have to have HIV in order to have AIDS. There are, however, some similarities between the two.

Opportunistic Infections

• Though the incidence of opportunistic infections can be a determining factor in a person's AIDS status, these infections, which take advantage of a depressed immune system due to HIV infection, can happen regardless of whether a person has progressed into AIDS status.

Immune System Depression

• Immune deficiency and low T-cell counts are similar in the case of either HIV or AIDS. Having a low T-cell count as a result of advanced HIV infection is one of the factors used to make an AIDS diagnosis.

Overall Illness

• It usually takes a long time (nearly a decade or more) for someone to become noticeably ill from HIV. During mid- to late-stage HIV infection, however, sickness can occur in much the same way as it does once AIDS has developed.

Treatment

• Antiretroviral medications are the same regardless of whether you have AIDS or HIV. There is no significant difference in treatment once HIV infection progresses into AIDS.

Differences in Severity

• Though there are several similarities between HIV infection and AIDS, symptoms that manifest in both are much more likely to be severe or life-threatening during AIDS.