In patients who have acquired HIV there is a steady loss of immune cells called CD4+ T-lymphocytes. The loss of the immune cells can result in the development of other diseases caused by common infections that don't threaten normal, healthy people. These infections include fungal, bacterial, protozoal, and viral diseases. It usually takes about six to ten years for a person who contracted HIV to develop AIDS.

In 1983, HIV was identified as a new human retrovirus. Luc Montagnier and scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris had isolated the retrovirus from a lymph nodes of a man who was thought to be at the risk of getting AIDS. Almost at the same time both Robert Gallo's group at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and a group led by Jay Levy at the University of California had isolated the retrovirus from several different AIDS patients.

When HIV was identified in 1983 the opportunity to develop a method of detection was great. Screening tests now in

After exposure to HIV these tests are unable to detect its presence for a period of time ranging from about four to eight weeks, because the immune system needs time to produce the antibodies that help make detection possible. There are other methods of detection that show some characteristics of the virus, that can be used in the four to eight weeks after exposure to HIV.

The early symptomatic phase can last from only a few months to several years. It is characterized by the rapid desinagration of CD4+ cells and non-life-threatening opportunistic infections. During this phase patients go through extensive immune destruction and serious illnesses that characterize the late symptomatic phase. The late phase also lasts between only a few months to years. A progressing weight loss and fatigue are shown in this phase. The immune system is in severe failure and patients enter the advanced AIDS phase. This phase includes death from severe-life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers within one to two years.

widespread use show the presence of antibodies that are made by the immune system when infected by HIV.

The most common opportunistic infection seen in AIDS patients is PCP. PCP is caused by a fungus called Pneumocystis carini. Bacterial pneumonia and tuberculosis are also associated with AIDS.

In the rural farming area of Tzaneem, South Africa a group of women from the Shangaan ethnic group made a support group for those widowed by HIV/AIDS or infected themselves. One of their goals is to educate those that are most vulnerable to the disease about the dangers of the epidemic.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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