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From: jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: HIV and AIDS
Message-ID: <1991Jun22.121843.13093@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: 21 Jun 91 23:46:11 GMT
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HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.  HIV is a biological entity 
which can be isolated and identified.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which is the name given 
to a set of symptoms which often occur together.  It's a defined term.

It's careless, and misleading, to talk about "the AIDS virus", for two
reasons (at least):

1) It is possible to be infected with HIV without developing AIDS.  The
   exact numbers aren't known, but it's becoming clear that some people
   can remain asymptomatic for years.  It's both discouraging and
   inaccurate to say that someone has "caught the AIDS virus" when they 
   might not ever develop any symptoms. 

   A term which is coming into increasing use in the San Francisco Bay Area
   is "HIV Disease", which encompasses a variety of symptoms and illnesses
   not included in the CDC definition of AIDS.  It also does not have the 
   connotations that "AIDS" has.

2) HIV is not the only cause of AIDS (although it is the leading one).
   "HIV" is a more specific term, and therefore preferable for the cases
   we talk about in this newsgroup (which probably ought to be called 
   sci.med.hiv).
-- 
Jack Hamilton         jfh@netcom.com         apple!netcom!jfh