By Crystal S., Grade 10, Crescent Collegiate, Blaketown, NF AIDS stands for a disease called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Let's look at exactly what the word AIDS stands for. The word Acquired tells us that AIDS is something that a person gets from another person. Immunodeficiency is another word that refers to the immune system. It means that a person's immune system is not strong enough to work correctly and is lacking the ability to fight off disease-causing organisms that normally it wouldn't destroy easily.
Syndrome means a group of conditions or symptoms that show that something is wrong.
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus . A virus is a very small organism that invades a person's body and causes disease. Different viruses cause different illnesses. AIDS is a result of an infection. HIV invades and destroys T-lymocytes and macrophages, two types of white blood cells that are very important in fighting off infections.