HIV attacks and kills the cells in our bodies that keep us from getting diseases. This makes people with HIV get illnesses that healthy people do not get. AIDS is a fatal disease. The disease can be passed to another person through contact with blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk. HIV can be passed by sharing needles used to take drugs, from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby, and by a mother to her baby when breast feeding.
Men can pass the disease to other men and women.
Women can pass the disease to other women and men. As of 1998, there were over 688,000 cases of AIDS reported in the United States. Women make up the fastest-growing group of people with AIDS, especially younger women and women of color. The virus stays in your body for life. Many people with HIV do not get the signs of AIDS for eight to ten years.