What is AIDS?

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a terminal illness caused by HIV in which the virus destroys a person’s ability to fight disease leaving him or her vulnerable to a wide range of infections and cancers. As its name implies, it is not a single disease. Rather, AIDS is a combination of opportunistic infections which in most cases lead to death. Opportunistic infections are those which find it easy to invade the body when its immune system is damaged.